Ritchie, Jean

found: New Grove dict. of Amer. mus.(Ritchie, Jean; b. 12-8-22, Viper, Crockett Co., KY; folksinger, songwriter, folksong collector, and dulcimer player)

found: New York times (online), viewed June 2, 2015(Jean Ritchie; b. Jean Ruth Ritchie, Dec. 8, 1922, Viper, Ky.; moved to New York in the late 1940s; returned from Port Washington, Long Island to Kentucky after the death of her husband in 2010; d. Monday [June 1, 2015], Berea, Ky., aged 92; brought hundreds of traditional songs from her native Appalachia to a wide audience--singing of faith and unfaithfulness, murder and revenge, love unrequited and love lost--and in the process helped ignite the folk song revival of the mid-20th century)

found: Wikipedia, viewed November 7, 2021(Ritchie's had written numerous songs about mining under the pseudonym 'Than Hall, to avoid troubling her non-political mother, and believing they might be better received if attributed to a man.)

found: Kentucky encyclopedia, ©1992:pages 773-774 (Jean Ruth Ritchie, born in Viper, Perry County, Ky. She and all of her siblings were musical, with she and her sister Edna becoming professional musicians. Attended Cumberland College in Williamsburg for two years and taught school in Perry County for a year in 1943, then transferred to the University of Kentucky, graduating in 1946 with a degree in social work. Moved to New York City in 1947 to work at the Henry Street Settlement House. Alan Lomax, a folk song collector, recorded her in 1949 for the Library of Congress Folk Song Archives and she became a regular performer on his NYC radio program. Began her recording career in 1952, recording more than 35 albums and writing 11 books of music and a family biography. Received a Fulbright fellowship to study songs of Ireland and England September 1952 to October 1953. In 1980 she was scholar in residence at California State College at Fresno. Maintains two residences: Port Washington, N.Y. and Viper, Kentucky.)