Stephen Forster Memorial Day Date in the current year: January 13, 2024

Stephen Foster was an American songwriter and known as the “father of American music”. He wrote over 200 songs and many of them remain popular for more than 150 years. Today songs Oh! Susanna and My Old Kentucky Home everyone knows.

Stephen Foster was born on July 4, 1826 in Pennsylvania. He received musical training from German emigrant Henry Kleber. Foster became popular only after publishing Foster's Ethiopian Melodies, which included his song Nelly Was a Lady.

Foster's music celebrated the African American population as far as slavery was an important and controversial issue at that time. Also Foster wrote instrumental music, but he couldn't perform his works professionally that is why he wasn't successful during his lifetime.

Foster died at the age of 37. He was in bed for several days with fever and when he tried to call a chambermaid, he fell down and hit against the washbasin next to his bed. In three days Foster died, it was January 13, 1864.

Stephen Foster Memorial Day was introduced by the President Harry Truman in 1952, when it was observed for the first time. This day received the status of a United States Federal Observance Day only on November 2, 1966, when the law took effect.