Kerry Mills

Kerry Mills (February 1, 1869 - December 5, 1948) was an American composer of popular music during the Tin Pan Alley era. His stylistically diverse music ranged from ragtime to to cakewalk to marches. He was most prolific between 1895 and 1918.

1907 sheet music

Mills was born Frederick Allen Mills in Philadelphia. He trained as a violinist and was working as head of the Violin Department of the University of Michigan School of Music when he began composing.

Mills moved to New York City in 1895 where he started a music publishing firm from which he published his own music.

Mills died in Hawthorn, California.

Selected works

• "Any Old Port in a Storm"
• "At A Georgia Camp-meeting"
• "Impecunious Davis"
• "In The City Of Sighs And Tears"
• "Just For The Sake Of Society"
• "Kerry Mills' Barn Dance"
• "Let's All Go Up To Maud's"
• "Like A Star That Falls From Heaven"
• "The Longest Way 'Round Is The Sweetest Way Home"
• "Meet Me In St Louis, Louis" (words by Andrew B. Sterling)
• "Red Wing" (words by Thurland Chattaway). Mills adapted the melody from Schumann's "Merry Peasant"
• "While The Old Mill Wheel Is Turning"
• "Whistling Rufus"