Composer of Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues – Date of death found
Pantheon of the forgotten
When I began research into the history of "St. James Infirmary," it was obvious that Porter Grainger would become a major character in the book. It wasn't long before I came to the realization that Grainger is one of the great-but-forgotten songwriters of the early 20th century.
He composed or co-composed hundreds of songs, including "Ain't Nobody's Business (If I Do)," "One Hour Mama" and "Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues." He was Bessie Smith's musical director and pianist for years and wrote songs tailored for her. He composed music for Orson Welles' critically acclaimed, immensely successful 1936 New York staging of MacBeth - set in Haiti and featuring an all-black cast.
Until I looked into census records, his birth date was unknown. Not because it was hidden, but because interest in him was so low that nobody had bothered to look.
Still, here he is in a 1939 photograph of major black composers/musicians in Harlem. Jelly Roll Martin, Eubie Blake, Kay Parker, Perry Bradford, James P. Johnson, and others. Porter Grainger is on the right, beside Claude Hopkins in the white suit).
Gradually he sank out of sight. He remains in the pantheon of the forgotten.
It was long thought that, due to dating of copyright renewals in his name, Grainger died in New York between 1951 and 1955. In fact, he died on October 30, 1948, in Pittsburgh. (A genealogy researcher who goes by the name ladylorax recently unearthed the death certificate on ancestry.com.)
When the certificate was completed, his name was entered as "Porter, Granger" (that is, Granger Porter)—hence the difficulty in finding the record. He was living at 1300 Wylie Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was brought to the Passavant Hospital at noon, where he remained for twenty minutes (which suggests he was DOA). Cause of death was written as: "Pneumonitis, due to dentures lodged in his trachea." In other words, he choked on his dentures. He was 57 years and 9 days old.
The book, both paper and ebook, can be purchased here: I Went Down to St. James Infirmary