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Chapter 3. A Life in Ragged Time
- Texas A&M University Press
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35 A Life in ragged Time Not much is known of Euday Louis Bowman, and what little has been written about his life is often limited, repetitive, conjectural, or inconsistent. Available sources disagree on key components of his life, even ones that would seem to be easily documented, and there is little historical analysis of his personal struggles, his motivation , or his reaction to his success. Part of that stems from the quiet and almost reclusive nature of the man himself. More has been written on the outcome of his work and its relative worth within broader contexts than on the process of creation. Even in the field in which he excelled, he remains an enigma, lesser known than a fellow Texan who gained much of his own renown decades following his death. The cycles of history that sometimes shift individuals from relative obscurity to newfound prominence have largely passed him by. Given the nature of his life, though, all of that might have been expected. The discrepancies surrounding the life of Euday Louis Bowman begin with his birth.While most historical references within larger works list theyearas 1887, others show it to be 1886.Census records are inconclusive on the matter, but two important pieces of evidence indicate the earlier date. One is his military registration card (from the World War I era), which he filled out himself. It gives his date of birth as November 9, 1886, and shows him to be a thirtyyear -old unemployed musician. At the time, Bowman lived at 707 Arizona Avenue in Fort Worth. An equally compelling record of his birth, although by no means definitive, is the inscription on his mausoleum, which notes the 1886 date.1 Census records provide a sketchy glimpse into Bowman’s early life. His father, George, was a Kentucky native who listed his 3 36 chaPTer 3 occupation in the 1880 census as farming and in 1900 as carpentry . Euday’s mother was Olivia Marguerite Graham Este Lembin (shown in other sources as Lamlin and Landin), a native of France. Early census notations give her birthplace as Holland, with France added in parentheses. Bowman had two older siblings: Mary Margaret (b. 1877), who became a music teacher, and Junius (b. 1879), about whom not much is known except that he was a farm worker early in his life. Olivia and George made their family home on Fort Worth’s Louisiana Avenue in 1900 but divorced in 1905. Afterward, Olivia moved to the Arizona Street homewith Maryand Euday, and in the 1910 census she, too, listed her occupation as music teacher.2 Several accounts of Bowman’s early life, including some he evidently conveyed himself, relate to his decision to leave home at the age of eleven. A central figure in that decision was an elusive local character known only as Raggedy Ed. Whether Raggedy Ed even existed is open to speculation, but according to a 1942 Kansas City Times article by Landon Laird, Bowman and Raggedy Ed knew each other in Fort Worth and reconnected in Kansas City, Missouri .There, Raggedy Ed spoke of his plans to open a pawn shop on 12th Street, and Bowman, already an accomplished musician and arranger even at such an early age, reportedly said he would use the three-ball symbol, then used to denote pawn establishments, to write a musical piece centered on a repeating three-note core. The year was 1897, and ragtime music was the craze, so Bowman drafted a number he dubbed the “12th Street Rag” (also shown as “Twelfth Street Rag”). As oneversion of the story goes, he perfected his piece with assistance from local theater musicians who frequented a popular restaurant, also on 12th Street. Other variations of the Kansas City story depict Bowman playing piano in brothels and bars of the city’s red light district along the same street, as well as a number of other streets he later memorialized in music.3 The story of a runaway preteenager making his way in the dark and sinister underworld of Kansas City, relying only on his natural musical wit to survive and even thrive in thewide open, freewheeling era of ragtime, is compelling and almost picaresque in its construction . Such historical backgrounds were essential, it seemed, to the mystique of early ragtime performers. These were, after all, [18.213.110.162] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 00:49 GMT) a liFe in ragged TiMe 37 as their music implied to many, social misfits who...