BIO: Stephen Collins FOSTER (1826-1864), was one of America's best-loved songwriters. He composed sentimental Negro songs that were called "plantation melodies." These songs are deeply moving in their sincerity and their simplicity. Foster's most popular works include "Old Folks at Home" (also known as "Swanee River"); "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night," "Old Black Joe," and Massa's in de Cold Ground." He also wrote such rollicking songs as Oh! Susanna" and "Camptown Races," and such romantic songs as "Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming," "Beautiful Dreamer," and "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair." He wrote the words as well as the music for most of his 200 songs. Foster was born on July 4, 1826, hear Lawrenceville, PA (now a part of Pittsburgh). He had little musical training, but he had a great gift of melody. At the age of six, he taught himself to play the clarinet, and he could pick up any tune by ear. He composed "The Tioga Waltz" for piano at 14. Two years later, his first song, "Open Thy Lattice, Love," was published. He wrote his first minstrel melodies, which he called "Ethiopian songs," in 1845. These were "Lou'siana Belle" and "Old Uncle Ned." Blackface minstrel shows, in which white entertainers blackened their faces, were becoming popular in the U. S. Foster decided to write songs for the blackface minstrels and to improve the quality of their music. He went to Cincinnati in 1846 to work as a bookkeeper for his brother. He wrote "Oh! Susanna," that same year. Soon it became the favorite song of the "forty-niners" in the CA gold rush. He married Jane McDOWELL in 1850, and settled in Pittsburgh to work as a co! mposer. He arranged with the minstrel leader, Edwin P. CHRISTY, to have his new songs performed on the minstrel stage. Foster was a poor businessman, and he sold many of his most famous songs for very little money. He lived in NYC from 1860 until his death, struggling against illness, poverty, and alcoholism. Some of Foster's songs became so popular during his lifetime that they were adapted (with suitable words) for Sunday school use. Because they were deeply rooted in American folk traditions, the best of Foster's songs have become part of the American cultural heritage. Foster was born to a Pennsylvania pioneer family that had roots in Derry, Ireland.