Stephen Foster

One of the places that we stopped at on our way home from the Senior Olympics was My Old Kentucky Home Park in Bardstown. The Park housed the beautiful home of Judge John Rowan but legend has it that it is

here that Stephen Foster wrote "My Old Kentucky Home" which is the state song for Kentucky. I use the term legend because in most of the biographies that I have looked at, they say that Foster only visited the deep south once-on his honeymoon. They also say that he visited the Ohio River towns

in Kentucky in his childhood but they don't mention a visit to the Rowan home when he was an adult.

Foster was born in 1826 in PA. He was one of 10 children. He published his first song when he was 18. He didn't have a strong education but he did have great musical talent. He played four

instruments: the piano, the guitar, the flageolet(which is like a recorder) and the flute(that is what he is holding in the statue in the picture). He always carried a notebook(he sounds alot like my sister, Elinor) and was constantly writing and rewriting

his songs. He was one of the first artist to have a contract with a publisher. Unlike most of the writers of his era, Foster tried to humanize the characters of his songs showing them as loving and caring people. Many of his songs were presented in minstrel

shows which had white people using blackface makeup. He never allowed those using his songs to mock the slaves so in that, he was a very different individual.

Foster never made very much money from his songwriting. In fact when he died in 1863, he only had $.38 to his name. He may have been poor at his death but we are enriched by his music which is alive and well today(especially around campfires and during long car trips)