“Harry T Burleigh wrote a song for my Great Aunt Harriot while they were @ a family picnic...”

A visitor made this entry in the Guest Book at AfriClassical.com on Monday, 11/3/08, 12:02 PM: “I happened to stumble upon this site today. Great info.! My Grandfather told me a story, many years ago, about how Harry T Burleigh wrote a song for my Great Aunt Harriot while they were @ a family picnic in Napanoch, NY. My Uncle still has the song safely put away. I had no idea, until about 20 yrs ago, that he was so famous and memorable. It is quite an honor to know that we share the same bloodline. Thank you. June (Family names: Elmandorf, Osterhoudt, Burleigh)” [Henry “Harry” Thacker Burleigh was an African American composer, arranger and baritone soloist who was born in Erie, Pennsylvania on December 2, 1866. In his lengthy career, Burleigh wrote 265 vocal works and made 187 choral arrangements. In 1916 he published Jubilee Songs of the United States of America, a book of arrangements of spirituals for solo vocal performance. Burleigh entered a nursing home in 1946, and died in Stamford, Connecticut on December 12, 1949. He is profiled at AfriClassical.com]