Aufderheide, May.
(Born: May 21st, 1890, Indianapolis, Indiana; died: September 1st, 1972, Pasadena, California.) May Aufderheide was one of the foremost figures in ragtime, composing some of the best known and most popular rags of her day. "Dusty Rag" was reputedly an orchestra favorite, "The Thriller" remains so today, and compositions like "Buzzer Rag" show an individual flair for harmony and emotion not evident in the works of most of her contemporaries. May and her brother Rudolph were the offspring of Lucy Deel and John Henry Aufderheide of Indianapolis. John Henry, a successful businessman, played violin and his sister, May Kolmer, was reportedly a superb pianist and musician. It was she who provided May Aufderheide training in classical piano. After high school the talented co-ed attended Pelham Manor, a finishing school, and then toured Europe with her parents. Despite these attempts at acculturation, Aufderheide took to composing ragtime shortly after returning home. Her first attempt, "Dusty Rag" (1908), sold so well it inspired her father to enter the sheet music business and make a success publishing the music his daughter and her young Indiana friends were creating. In 1908 Aufderheide married Thomas Kaufmann, an architect, and moved with him to Richmond, Indiana. There she composed 19 new pieces for the J. H. Aufderheide & Co catalog, including seven rags, and several marches, waltzes, and songs. When the couple adopted a daughter, Lucy, and returned to Indianapolis, Aufderheide's creative period came to an end. Her husband eventually gave up architecture and joined the staff of the Commonwealth Loan Company, a business interest of his father-in-law. He retired with considerable wealth in 1947 and moved his family to Pasadena, CA (a city so popular among Indiana transplants, in 1875 it was originally called "Indiana Colony"). They lived in a cottage on the grounds of Pasadena's elegant Huntington Sheraton Hotel. [See the May, 1981 issue of The Rag Times for David Reffkin and Galen Wilkes' description of this abode.] Perhaps the peaceful hotel garden surroundings provided solace for the serious health and family problems May Aufderheide faced from then on; she outlived both her daughter and husband. She died in 1972 and was buried in Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA. A more detailed description of the Aufderheide story can be found in That American Rag: The Story of Ragtime from Coast to Coast by David A. Jasen and Gene Jones (New York: Schirmer Books, 2000). An August 13th, 1909 American Musician and Art Journal article about May Aufderheide is quoted in this book. A full reprint of this article appears in John Edward Hasse's excellent chapter on "May Aufderheide and the Ragtime Women" in Ragtime, Its History and Music (New York: Schirmer Books, 1985).

Dusty Rag (1908) Duane Crabb Publ. Co., Indianapolis, Indiana; The Richmond Rag (1908); The Thriller (1909); Buzzer Rag (1909); Blue Ribbon Rag (1910); A Totally Different Rag (1910); song version (lyrics: Earle C. Jones) (1910); In Bamboo Land (lyrics: Earle C. Jones) (1910); I Want a Patriotic Girl (lyrics: Bobby Jones) (1911); Novelty Rag (1911); You and Me In The Summertime (lyrics: Rudolph Aufderheide) (1911); and Dusty Rag Song (lyrics: J. Will Callahan) (1912) J. H. Aufderheide & Co., Indianapolis.

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