Grace Adele Freebey

Freebey was born on January 25 1885, in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, to Charles Peter Freebey and Joanna Estelle Walsh Freebey. Her mother was born in Canada.^[2] In childhood, she moved to Los Angeles with her parents and siblings.^[3][4] She studied piano with A. J. Stamm, Marie von Unschuld, Louis Bachner, and Ernest Hutcheson, and composition with conductor Henry Schoenefeld.^[3][5]

Freebey performed as a concert pianist,^[6][7] and was accompanist for singers Ernestine Schumann-Heink and Ellen Beach Yaw, and cellists May Mukle and Alfred Wallenstein.^[8] In 1914, she toured in vaudeville with Wallenstein, a child prodigy.^[9] She was a member of the Schliewen Trio, with Wallenstein and violinist Richard Schliewen.^[10] She was business manager and accompanist of the all-woman Sunny Southland Trio.^[11]

Freebey taught piano classes at her own studio in Los Angeles,^[12][13] and at the Wilson-Greene School of Music,^[14] and as head of the piano department at Martha Washington Seminary in Washington, D.C.^[3]

Tunes composed by Freebey, including "My Dearest Wish" (1911),^[15] "O Golden Sun" (1912),^[16] "North Wind", "Wind of the West", "May Day",^[17] "Calling You", "Somebody's Coming", "Love's Resignation", "Just You and My Homeland" (1919),^[18] "My Golden California" (1924)^[19] and "Think of Me Sometimes" (1929), were performed by Schumann-Heink, Tsianina Redfeather,^[18] Jeanne Jomelli,^[20]Johanna Gadski, David Bispham, Constance Balfour, the People's Orchestra of Los Angeles,^[21][22] and other popular singers and musical groups.^[3]

Freebey died at her home in Los Angeles, on March 30, 1943, aged 58.^[23][24] She was buried in the Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery.