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that her father had written "Dixie" for the
Buckner Guards "when they were called south during the Civil War". The editor, James Coke, asked for evidence, but she could provide none. To this day, there remains, as yet, no known evidence to support Hays' claim that he did indeed write "Dixie".
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Meanwhile, the 70-year-old Hays grew ill, and his wife took over management of his case. She wrote to Oliver Ditson & Co., a Boston-based publisher, for information on "Away Down South in Dixie" by Will S. Hays. They responded that they did not have such a song in their catalog. William
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Over his career, Hays is credited with over 350 songs, and he may have sold as many as 20 million copies of his works, making him more prolific than most of his 19th century peers. His songs show a great variety, ranging from austere
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Hays was married to Rosa Belle McCullough (1847–1935), and the couple had two children, Mattie and Samuel. Hays died in
Louisville on July 23, 1907, less than a week after his 70th birthday. He is buried in
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Hays finished school and returned to
Louisville in 1857. He found employment at D. P. Fauld's music store, where he continued to write music and poetry. He published many of his pieces under
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In 1937, Hays's daughter made one final attempt to support her father as the author of "Dixie". She wrote to
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as a result. In his later years, Hays put forth one of the more plausible claims to authorship of the song "
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that began "If I were a soldier wouldn't I go . . .", and which had been subsequently parodied in a
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In May 1907, Hays presented his claims to a
Southern historical society in Louisville known as the
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and attributed to Hays as "Way Down South in Dixie". Furthermore, Faulds wrote that only the
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However, Hays's claim was not forgotten. In 1908, Thomas J. Firth, a music teacher in
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to sentimental and pious; his material was sometimes confused with that of
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and that was by then usually attributed to minstrel show songwriter
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Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the
Confederacy, 1861-1865
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In his later years, Hays claimed to have written the lyrics to "
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Shakespeare Hays died in 1907 with no resolution to his claim.
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had been copyrighted, since the music came from an earlier
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did so for Emmett. Faulds said that his version was
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that the two men's material was sometimes confused.
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142:(July 19, 1837 – July 23, 1907) was an American
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439:19th-century American male writers
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419:Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
174:Hays was born as William Hays in
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429:Blackface minstrel songwriters
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434:Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery
404:19th-century American poets
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353:Abel, E. Lawrence (2000).
86:Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
73:Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
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368:William Shakespeare Hays
140:William Shakespeare Hays
23:William Shakespeare Hays
260:Firth, Pond & Co.
111:Rosa Belle McCullough
284:The New York Clipper
240:first performed it.
180:Georgetown, Kentucky
176:Louisville, Kentucky
55:Louisville, Kentucky
424:Poets from Kentucky
409:American male poets
414:American lyricists
256:Memphis, Tennessee
238:Bryant's Minstrels
230:American Civil War
214:Cave Hill Cemetery
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376:Works by Hays on
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68:(1907-07-23)
35:Hays in 1895
399:1907 deaths
394:1837 births
264:copyrighted
245:Filson Club
91:Occupations
388:Categories
348:References
234:Dan Emmett
156:low comedy
100:songwriter
47:1837-07-19
293:The Etude
187:pen names
170:Biography
124:Signature
340:Abel 48.
324:Abel 47.
199:minstrel
197:to base
148:lyricist
116:Children
268:lyrics
152:copies
108:Spouse
57:, U.S.
378:IMSLP
301:Notes
226:Dixie
202:tunes
195:hymns
164:Dixie
146:and
144:poet
97:Poet
63:Died
41:Born
370:at
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