Ella Louise Jenkins (August 6, 1924 – November 9, 2024) was an American singer-songwriter and centenarian. Called the "First lady of children's music", she was a leading performer of folk and children's music. Her 1995 album Multicultural Children's Songs has long been the most popular Smithsonian Folkways release. She appeared on numerous children's television programs and in 2004, she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. According to culture writer Mark Guarino, "across her 67-year career, Jenkins firmly established the genre of children's music as a serious endeavor – not just for artists to pursue but also for the recording industry to embrace and promote."
Early life and education
Jenkins was born to African American parents Annabelle Walker Jenkins and Obadiah Jenkins in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1924. Jenkins received no formal musical training, and developed an appreciation for music while growing up in a family of Christian Scientists with eclectic musical tastes. Her uncle, Floyd Johnson, introduced her to the harmonica and the blues of such renowned musicians as T-Bone Walker, Memphis Slim, Little Brother Montgomery and Big Bill Broonzy. Her family frequently moved around the south side and, as she moved to different neighborhoods, she learned new children's rhythms, rhymes and games. Gospel music became a part of her soundscape as neighborhood churches broadcast their services onto the street. She also enjoyed tap dancing lessons at the local theater and was able to go to the Regal Theater to see such performers as Cab Calloway, Count Basie, and Peg Leg Bates. Cab Calloway is the person who she credits with getting her interested in call and response singing. As a teenager, Jenkins was also exposed to music from around the world through records released by Folkway Records. In the late 1940s, Jenkins was involved with the Chicago branch of Congress of Racial Equality.
She graduated from DuSable High School in 1942. Three of her female coworkers encouraged her to return to school, and she entered Woodrow Wilson Junior College (now Kennedy–King College) in 1945; later in life, she tracked down all three women to thank them. During these years, Jenkins was also an enthusiastic table tennis player. In 1948 she won the Chicagoland Women's Table Tennis Championship, and was invited to join the national table tennis team, but was unable to due to associated costs. On November 9, 2024, Jenkins died at an assisted living facility in Chicago; she was 100.
Music career
In Chicago, Jenkins began writing songs for children while volunteering in recreation centers She was soon offered a regular job as the host of a Thursday afternoon program on the channel, which she titled This is Rhythm. After landing the job, she left her position at the YWCA.
Jenkins was holding music workshops for children's educators by the early 1970s.
Jenkins began to receive wider attention in the early 1980s, after appearing as a guest on Sesame Street and being subsequently invited to appear on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. In 1985, she appeared on Free at Last, a television special about Martin Luther King Jr. which was hosted by LeVar Burton. On the special, Jenkins performed the song "You Better Leave Segregation Alone".
As a performer and educator, Jenkins traveled extensively, performing her songs on all seven continents (even Antarctica). As she traveled, she not only shared her music and experiences but also learned about the cultures of the people she is visiting, taking with her musical traditions and languages that she then shared with her audiences. She performed at America's Reunion on the Mall in 1993, America's Millennium Celebration in 2000, and at Smithsonian's 150th Birthday Party on the Mall in Washington, DC in 1996. In collaboration with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, she acted as a U.S. delegate to Hong Kong, the People's Republic of China, and the former Soviet Union. Nearly all of her albums include children singing with her. Jenkins' final album, Camp Songs with Ella Jenkins and Friends, was released in 2017. Jenkins used call-and-response singing to promote group participation.
Awards and recognition
Music awards
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Year
!Award
!Category
!Album
!Result
!Ref
|-
|1991
|Parents' Choice Award
|
|Come Dance By the Ocean
|
|
|-
|1995
|American Academy of Children's Entertainment
|Best Variety Performer Award
|
|
|
|-
|1999
|American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
|Lifetime Achievement Award
|
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |2000
|AFIM Indie Awards
|Children's Music
|A Union of Friends Pulling Together
|Honorable mention
|
|-
|2004
|Grammy Awards
|Lifetime Achievement Award
|
|
|
|-
|2005
|Grammy Awards
|Best Musical Album for Children
|cELLAbration: A Tribute to Ella Jenkins (2004)
|
|
|-
|2012
|Association for Library Service to Children
|Notable Children's Recordings
|Ella Jenkins: A Life of Song (2011)
|
|
|}
Other awards
- Named Honorary Citizen of Louisville, Kentucky (1979, International Year of the Child)
- Inducted into the San Francisco State University Alumni Hall of Fame (2004)
- Fellow Award in Music from United States Artists (2009)
- Living Legends for Service to Humanity Award (2011)
- Fifth Star Award from the City of Chicago (2015)
Legacy
Jenkins was dubbed the "First Lady of Children's Song". As noted in an obituary to Jenkins, "Before Jenkins, children's music in the United States consisted primarily of simplified, often cartoonish renditions of classical music". The book is illustrated by Jade Johnson.
Academic Gayle F. Ward plans to release a biography of Jenkins in 2025 through Chicago University Press.
- Adventures in Rhythm (1959, reissued 1989, 1992)
- African-American Folk Rhythms (1960, reissued 1998)
- This-a-Way-That-a-Way (1961, reissued 1989)
- This is Rhythm (1961, reissued 1994)
- Rhythm & Game Songs for Little Ones (1964, reissued 1991)
- Songs and Rhythms From Near and Far (1964, reiussed 1997)
- You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song (1966, reissued 1989)
- Play Your Instruments & Make a Pretty Sound (1968, reissued 1994)
- Counting Games & Rhythms for the Little Ones (1969, reissued 1990)
- Rhythms of Childhood (1970, reissued 1989)
- Seasons for Singing (1970, reissued 1990)
- And One And Two & Other Songs for Pre-School and Primary Children (1971, reissued 1990)
- My Street Begins at My House (1971, reissued 1989)
- Little Johnny Brown with Ella Jenkins and Girls and Boys from "Uptown" (Chicago) (1972, reissued 1990)
- This-A-Way That-A-Way (1973, reissued 1989, 1992)
- Nursery Rhymes: Rhyming & Remembering for Young Children & for Older Girls & Boys with Special Language Needs (1974, reissued 1990)
- Jambo and Other Call and Response Songs and Chants (1974, reissued 1996)
- We Are America's Children (1976)
- Travellin' with Ella Jenkins: – A Bilingual Journey (1979, reissued 1989)
1980s
- I Know the Colors of the Rainbow (1981)
- Looking Back and Looking Forward (1981)
- Early Early Childhood Songs (1982, reissued 1996)
- Hopping Around from Place to Place Vol. 2 (1983; reissued 2000, 2015)
1990s
- Live at the Smithsonian (1991)
- For the Family (1991)
- Come Dance by the Ocean (1991)
- Multicultural Children's Songs (1995)
- Holiday Times (1996)
- Songs Children Love To Sing (1996)
2000s and 2010s
- Sharing Cultures With Ella Jenkins (2003)
- cELLAbration: A Tribute to Ella Jenkins (2004)
- A Life of Song (2011)'
- Get Moving with Ella Jenkins (2012)
- 123s and ABCs (2014)
- More Multicultural Children's Songs (2014)
- Camp Songs with Ella Jenkins and Friends (2017)
Filmography
- Ella Jenkins Live at the Smithsonian (1991)
- For the Family! (1991)
See also
- List of centenarians (musicians, composers and music patrons)
References
External links
- Ella Jenkins at Folkways Recordings
- History Makers Biography
- Ella Jenkins's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
- Ella Jenkins Interview – NAMM Oral History Library (2015)
- Gayle Wald on Ella Jenkins, PMBiP, 29/11/22. "PMBiP" is "Popular Music Books in Progress".
- A Life of Song: The Story of Ella Jenkins