Carrie Jacobs Bond Composer of I Love You Truly
World-Famous Songwriter of Victorian Vocal Works
May 25, 2009
Carrie Minetta Jacobs was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, on August 11,1862 and while she did have some instruction in painting and music, she had the gift of being able to play anything by ear. Little did she realize that she would one day become one of the most famous songwriters in the world, and compose sheet music that would sell in the millions.
Carrie Jacob Bond's Marriages
In December of 1880, Carrie married Edward J. Smith, with whom she had a son, Frederick Jacobs Smith (1881-1928). The marriage was short-lived and they divorced in 1888. Carrie then wed, in 1889, Dr. Frank Lewis Bond (1858-1895). She was apparently very happy in her second marriage, which was tragically ended when some boys playing in the snow knocked Bond to the ground, where he struck his head on the ice.
Illness of Carrie Jacobs Bond
Bond was disabled by rheumatism and after the divorce she has a son to raise alone. It was very difficult for her as she did not have money and many times was unable to move around. Of her second marriage to Dr. Bond, Carrie wrote in her memoirs, [he] took a deep and sympathetic interest in my music and encouraged me, D Appleton and Company, 1927).
Seven Songs as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose
In 1901, with the financial help of American singer Jessie Bartlett Davis, she published Seven Songs as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose, which included such favorites as Parting Shadows, Just a Wearyin' for You, I Love You Truly, and Still Unexprest. She was still without money and was forced to rent rooms in her small home and do china painting for her income. She did , however, begin a small publishing company in the corner of her living room, which later burgeoned into a major enterprise, Bond Store.
Later Years
By 1920 her songs had become extremely well known, the most famous being When You Come to the End of a Perfect Day, which had sold 5 million copies. That same year Carrie and her son moved to Hollywood, California,where, in 1932, ill and depressed, he took his own life.
She made her last personal concert appearance at San Francisco, in 1940. During her lifetime she had been presented to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Warren Harding at the White House in Washington, D.C. She died, at the age of 85, and is buried at the Forest Lawn memorial Park, Glendale California.
Sources
Roads to Melody by Carrie Jacobs Bond D. Appleton and Company 1927
Famous American Women ed. Robert McHenry, Dover Publications Inc., New York 1980
For further reading see Alice Nielsen
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