Reader asks about gospel music publisher Lillian Bowles

Fridays at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do some preliminary research to get them started. So, these are market values based on prices I find on the web, not appraisal for insurance purposes that I suggest for items that have been determined to be of great value.

Today’s question is about Lillian Mae Bowles, an African American publisher of gospel music.

Question:

Lillian M. Bowles is noted as a white publisher. She was black and was born in Mississippi. She was my daddy’s sister. I believe she died in 1960. I am searching for history on Lillian M. Bowles Pannell and the Bowles Music House to present @ a family reunion this July. That is how I came across this article. I found a bio years ago that I have misplaced. I also had a book of poems by Lillian M. Bowles. I am wondering if you can tell me where I can find the info I am seeking.

Answer:

I wrote about black gospel music publishers after coming across several tattered songbooks at auction two years ago. One of those compilations was from the Bowles Music House, owned by Lillian Mae Bowles. I mistakenly identified her as a white publisher, based on an entry in a 1994 Smithsonian Folkways CD on the pioneers of gospel music. More recent research showed that she was African American.

I was not able to find out much about Bowles and her company, only the mention of both in several accounts of other composers and arrangers. Some of what I did find was conflicting information.

Bowles was a publisher and perhaps a writer, and was among a handful of African American music publishers in Chicago. She, Kenneth Morris, Sallie Martin, Thomas A. Dorsey, Theodore Frye and Roberta Martin made the city a gospel publishing hub in the 1930s and 1940s. African Americans were also publishing gospel music in Philadelphia; Gary, IN, and Pittsburgh, among other places, I’m sure.

Dorsey was the first to open a gospel publishing company in 1932 and helped spawn the gospel music industry among African Americans. Morris and Martin, a singer who had worked closely with Dorsey, opened their company in 1940, and when Morris died in 1989, Martin and Morris Music Studio was the last gospel music store in Chicago.

From 1937 to 1940, Morris – an arranger, composer and publisher – worked for Bowles, replacing Charles Pace, another noted composer who went on to open his own publishing company in Pittsburgh.

It’s not clear if Bowles was a composer or writer, but her songbooks from the auction listed her on several songs. She was also credited with writing the song “Working on the Building,” later recorded by such singers as Elvis Presley and B.B. King.

Morris is reported to have said in a 1992 biography that she did not read music:

“If someone approached her with a song and wanted her to publish it, she, not having any particular knowledge of music, would refer that person to me. Somehow or other I’d have to get the song out of their head and onto paper. This person would have to transfer the song that they had in their mind to me, and I would have to arrange it and put it on paper the way that I thought it would be commercial.”

During a final search of Bowles on the web, I decided to check the archives of the Chicago Defender, the venerable old African American newspaper in the city. I found the abstract of a 1962 obituary for Bowles under her married name Pannell. The reader can access the full story for a fee or can likely get it for free or a reduced cost through the main branch of the public library in Chicago. Other entries appeared when I searched using Bowles’ name, so the reader can do the same search and check the results for ones pertaining specifically to her.

Early on, I had found several references that put her birth at 1884 and death at 1949 (the reader mentioned that she had died in 1960, which is substantiated by the newspaper article).

An ancestry.com listing showed someone with her name in the 1940 census as having been born in Mississippi in 1905 and living in Tennessee at the time of the census. Bowles was publishing music in Chicago in 1940.

Here are some other suggestions for tracking Bowles and learning more about her:

Try ancestry.com to see if you can find her via the Census and other records.

Since her music company was based in Chicago, try the Chicago Historical Society, which may be able to direct you to other resources, including books that might mention her. There’s also a Chicago History Museum that you should also check.

The main branch of the public library or major university libraries in Chicago may have books or collections on gospel music as well as other documents that might offer more information on her, or they also may be able to direct you to other resources.

Try the DuSable Museum of African American History and the Columbia College Chicago Center for Black Music Research, both in Chicago. If they have no info they may be able to direct you to other resources.

The Gospel Music Association may or may not have documents relating to the history of gospel music and its pioneers.

Baylor University Libraries in Texas has a Black Gospel Music Restoration Project whose aim is to maintain the legacy of the music. The collection contains primarily record albums, but also includes documents from the 1940s to 1980s. It is slated to become part of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, scheduled to be completed in Washington in 2015.

I also came across a mention of books of poetry by Bowles on amazon.com (it is unavailable) and a retail site, Bibliomamia.

I found several of the same entries for Lillian Mae Bowles Pannell and Thomas J. Pannell. She published “Bowles Book of Poems” and “Bowles Choral Directing Book” in 1939 that he apparently re-published in 1966.

I’m amazed that such little has been written about her since hers was one of the earliest African American gospel music publishing companies in Chicago. But African American history gets buried so deep sometimes that it’s hard to dig up (and especially so for black women).

Reader’s reply:

Thanks so much Sherry. I should be able to get some history from one or more of the contacts. I want to give this piece of history to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I pray they will not be as careless as I was regarding our family history. She did live in Memphis in the early 1940’s before moving to Chicago. The 1905 birthday is most likely hers. I will contact some of the agencies and see if there is any history recorded in their archives. If I get any good history I will let you know.