Bond, Carrie Jacobs (1862–1946)

American composer. Name variations: Jacobs-Bond. Born Carrie Jacobs in Janesville, Wisconsin, on August11, 1862; died in Hollywood, California, on December 28, 1946; married E.J. Smith, in December 1880 (divorced 1888); married Dr. Frank L. Bond, in June 1889 (died 1895).

Born in Janesville, Wisconsin, on August 11, 1862, Carrie Jacobs Bond wrote songs for years before she saw the publication of "Is My Dolly Dead?" and "Mother's Cradle Song," in 1894. The next year, following the death of her second husband, she moved to Chicago, where she ran a boarding house and gave recitals and concerts in private homes to supplement her income. Steadily gaining an audience for her songs, in 1901, Bond published Seven Songs as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose, which included two favorites "I Love You Truly" and "Just a-Wearyin' for You." With the money from the songbook, she opened a shop where she sold sheet music which she both designed and printed. By 1910, Bond had played at the White House for Theodore RooseveltRoosevelt, Theodore and had performed at recitals in New York and in England, where she appeared with the young Enrico Caruso. She then published "The End of a Perfect Day," which became her most popular song, selling over five million print copies, as well as piano rolls and recordings that went uncounted.

Bond moved to Hollywood and continued to write some 400 songs (170 of which were published), all in the sentimental style that characterized much of 19th-century music. However, World War I brought social change and new musical tastes, and by the late 1920s her style of song was passé. In 1927, she published a memoir, The Roads of Melody, followed by a collection of thoughts and verses called The End of the Road in 1940. She died on December 28, 1946.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts