He once called her "one of the finest pure mountain singers ever discovered." Within a few years, Ritchie gave up social work to fully devote her energies to her music. In New York, Ritchie began to sing and play the dulcimer for friends, and she met folklorist Alan Lomax, who helped arrange singing appearances for her. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1946, she worked briefly as a teacher in Kentucky before moving to New York City to take a job as a music counselor at the Henry Street Settlement. There she majored in social work and also received some formal musical training. Jean attended Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Kentucky, worked briefly as a teacher during World War II, and later transferred to the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Though the family was poor and the children worked hard at farm chores, they enjoyed a happy home life and often amused themselves by singing and sharing songs with neighbors.īalis Ritchie valued learning and helped most of his children receive a solid education. Ritchie, a former teacher who had turned to farming after losing his hearing, and Abigail Hall Ritchie. Ritchie was the youngest of 14 children born to Balis W. She made her life's work the preservation of this musical heritage, which the Library of Congress had catalogued in the 1930s. The Swapping Song Book (1952) A Garland of Mountain Song (1953) (memoir) Singing Family of the Cumberlands (1955) From Fair to Fair: Folk Songs of the British Isles (1966).īorn in 1922 into a musical family whose ancestors had been among the first to settle in the Cumberland Mountain region of Appalachia in the 1700s, Jean Ritchie grew up hearing and singing the traditional songs that her family had passed along for generations.
Selected recordings:Ĭhildren's Songs and Games from the Southern Mountains (1957) Folk Concert in Town Hall, New York (1959) British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains, Volumes 1 and 2 (1960) Precious Memories (1962) High Hills and Mountains (1979) None But One (1981). Received Fulbright grant (1952) to study folk music of the British Isles sang at first annual Newport Folk Festival (July 1959). Ritchie (a former schoolteacher and farmer) and Abigail (Hall) Ritchie attended Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Kentucky University of Kentucky in Lexington, A.B., 1946 married George Pickow (a photographer), on Septemchildren: Jonathan Balis Peter Ritchie Pickow. Born in Viper, Kentucky, on Decemdaughter of Balis W.
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