Charity Bailey

Charity Abigail Bailey (1904-1978) was my music teacher at Heathcote Elementary School in Scarsdale, New York 1962-68. I was also among the hundreds of children invited on her television show. Whether within the inviting multicolor windows of Heathcote or on the floor of the studio, I remember singing and moving--never one without the other. My hands were clapping or snapping or hitting some weird percussion thing. Occasionally the song had American origins, but more likely it was from South America or the Caribbean or the Middle East or Europe or Africa or Australia.

 

She was a pioneer in using authentic world music in elementary schools. She was born in Providence, RI, attended Rhode Island College of Education, studied at Julliard and Dalcroze, and settled in New York. She taught at the "Little Red School House" in Greenwich Village in New York City (hwww.lrei.org) 1943-1955 where she inspired Mary Travers ("beginnings" on the Peter, Paul and Mary website). She wrote songbooks, arranged for piano and guitar, sang on recordings, and hosted local television shows (Sing a Song on NBC and then the local educational station on Channel 13 before it became WNET).

 

Here name really was Charity Bailey with no apparent relationship to either Pearl (b. 1918 in Virginia) or Bill (vaudevillian immortalized by Hughie Cannon). She married Jack White late in life, but never used the name "White" professionally. The quiet joke among the entirely non-black families was that Mrs. White was black and Mrs. Black (a first grade teacher) was white. Before I heard that, I hadn't noticed that she was black. If asked to describe her, I would have said she was old. (Also at Heathcote, the gym teacher was Art and the art teacher was... Rosemary. Oh well.) She taught at Heathcote 1958-1970.

 

She was on four Smithsonian Folkways records (click to hear clips on the Folkways website): Songs to Grow on, Vol. 2 (1951), Music Time with Charity Bailey (1952), Follow the Sunset (lullabies around the world)(1953), More Music Time and Stories (1970). Note: She was not on Songs to Grow on Vol. 1 - Nursery Days which also came out in 1951 and was all Woody Guthrie whereas Vol. 2 had various artists.

 

She contributed to about a dozen records for Young Peoples Records from 1946 to 1952. This is according to information from David Bonner, who wrote a book on Young Peoples Records with more biographical information on Charity Bailey than anywhere else. David donated his "Charity Bailey Rhythm Kit" that he bought on eBay to the Folk Museum in Greenwich Village which doesn't exist yet.

 

Mary Travers refers to the Charity Bailey Children's Folk Music Project on the PP&M website. I find no other references to this charitable project "named for Travers's childhood music teacher."

 

A web search for "Charity Bailey" finds several other musicians who were inspired by her.