Jessie Gaynor

• Name — Jesse L. Smith Gaynor • Born — 17 February 1863 • Birthplace — St. Louis, Missouri • Died — 20 February 1921 • Place of death — St. Louis, Missouri • Occupation — Composer • Children — Rose Gaynor Barrett (Rose Fenimore Gaynor)

Jessie L. Smith was born in St. Louis, Missouri to a prominent businessman of that city and Susan Fenimore Taylor, from whom she inherited her love and talent for music and who was related to James Fenimore Cooper. As a child, Mrs. Gaynor sang correctly before she could talk. She was early placed under instruction, first in instrumental and later in vocal music, and continued her musical studies while in school and college. Aside from her piano study she became somewhat familiar with the cornet, double bass, and violin, and later studied the violin for two years. While at school, she played these various instruments in an amateur orchestra. She later studied piano and theory under Dr. Louis Maas of Boston. Afterward she studied voice under John Dennis Mehan, theory under A. J. Goodrich and Adolph Weidig, and piano under Leopold Godowsky. After marrying, she and her husband, Thomas W. Gaynor of Iowa City, moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, where Mrs. Gaynor organized the Ladies' Fortnightly Musical Club and became an active musical influence in the community. In 1895, she went to Chicago, where for five years she was a well-known teacher of piano and harmony, and published there her first compositions, among them An Album of Seven Songs, Rose Songs, and Songs to the Little Folks, besides a number of single works, all of them favorably received. In 1900, she returned to St. Joseph and established a musical school known as The Gaynor Studios, which was very successful and constituted an art center, where drawing, painting, and other arts were taught in addition to the various branches of music. Her musical activities have extended to giving lecture-recitals of her songs, particularly for children, and talks on the musical training of children, for which she was in demand at musical clubs, state teachers' conventions, and other educational bodies. Composers June Weybright and Amy Aldrich Worth were among her students. She was a member of the Chicago Manuscript Society and of the Manuscript Society of New York. Jessie Gaynor died in St. Louis on February 20, 1921.