{"id":695,"date":"2026-11-12T08:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T08:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aha-musik.de\/?p=695"},"modified":"2026-11-03T08:56:53","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T08:56:53","slug":"may-f-lawrence-1876-1958","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aha-musik.de\/index.php\/2026\/11\/12\/may-f-lawrence-1876-1958\/","title":{"rendered":"May F. Lawrence (1876-1958)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2023, I published a short post<\/a> on American composer May F. Lawrence. At that time, all I knew was the year when she died and that she was American. Since then, my colleague Jeff Watson has done extensive research work and I’m very happy that he has made his writings available for my blog. You can read the long version of Jeff’s article here<\/a>. Please note that the article is licensed under Creative Commons and usage in music education and schools is highly encouraged. Usage for genAI\/LLM training purposes is forbidden (this is valid for all texts on my blog).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marion Eudora Lawrence (born Flisher, December 24, 1876 – September 7, 1958) was an American composer, church music director, organist, and pianist who helped make Nashville, Tennessee a musical mecca of the American South in the first half of the 20th century.

Life<\/strong>
Marion „May“ Eudora Flisher was born in Ohio, and, by age four, she with her family had moved to South Pittsburg, Tennessee. She and her twin sister Grace M. (Flisher) Baskette graduated from George Peabody College for Teachers in 1893 as did their younger sister Edith E. Flisher, a portrait artist, in 1910. May married William Walton Lawrence, grandson of Andrew Jackson Jr., in 1899 and gave birth to their only child Edith E. Lawrence in 1901. After the death of her husband, Lawrence stayed in Nashville and her sister Judith lived with her until Judith’s death in 1936. In 1943, May moved from Nashville to live with her daughter and son-in-law in Decatur, Georgia and eventually died there in 1958.

Career<\/strong>
Known professionally as May F. Lawrence, she served as music director and organist of Vine Street Christian Church in Nashville, Tennessee from 1907 to 1943. She was a member of the American Guild of Organists and was elected to the Executive Committee of the Central Tennessee Chapter in 1914. Lawrence performed on at least two Nashville radio stations, WLAC and WSM, from the late 1920s to the mid-1930s and is noted as WLAC staff accompanist in 1927. Beyond her church music duties, May performed regularly in venues around Nashville and a few other places for social, musical, and professional gatherings.

Music Composition<\/strong>
Encouraged by friends who saw quality in her compositions, May submitted works to publishers and had her first two organ works published in early 1920 and two sacred songs published in late 1920. Subsequently, she had many works published by well-known music publishers such as Theodore Presser & Co., Edward Schuberth & Co., J. S. Fearis and Bro., and Lorenz Publishing Company. Fellow Nashvillian Emma Louise Ashford regularly included Lawrence’s organ compositions in The Organist<\/em>, a bi-monthly music magazine edited by Ashford. Later Lorenz anthologies also included Lawrence’s organ music. In 1923, she wrote the music and Alice Whitson wrote the lyrics for the popular song „I’d like to be a Santa Claus“ that Columbia Records included on one of their 1924 Christmas records featuring vocalist Gertrude Schmidt. In 1928, Lawrence is noted as one of five composers, along with Ashford, helping make Nashville a musical „mecca of the South.“ The Harrodsburg Herald noted in 1931 that she „is a composer of note and has a number of exquisite compositions to her credit“, and in 1942 she was included in Music and Musicians of Tennessee<\/em>. Lawrence’s music was most popular from the 1920s to the 1950s, although it is documented being performed from 1921 to 2025.
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Works and Publications<\/strong>
Lawrence composed dozens of works for organ and a number of anthems, hymns, church songs, secular choral works, along with a number of songs for children’s educational magazines. Confirmed as of May 2026, neither The Lorenz Corporation nor their licensing partner OneLicense.net can provide a definitive list of Lawrence’s works published by Lorenz, and neither company describes her known compositions beyond title and likely copyright date (no instrumentation, vocal part(s), etc.). The following works for specific performers or instrumentation are identified in the work, in published volumes‘ tables of contents, or in news articles of Lawrence’s works performed.
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Organ music (partial list)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n