Mary Elizabeth Hale Woolsey was born in 1899 in Spanish
Fork, Utah; one of nine children. She graduated from Brigham Young High School
in Provo in 1917. Just days after graduation, Mary married Parley Woolsey. They
settled in Salt Lake City, where they raised four daughters before Parley
divorced her and married someone else. Mary wrote songs, but often had a hard
time getting them published. “I Have a Garden” was included in “Sing with Me,’ 1969
(where her name is spelled “Maryhale Woolsey”) but is missing from “Children’s
Songbook,” 1989. Mary’s most popular work, “When It’s Springtime in the
Rockies,” was rejected by 14 publishers. When it was finally put in print, Mary’s
name was mysteriously missing. Mary lived to the age of 70; long enough to see
her most notable lyrics attributed to Gene Autry, and even to hear Donald Duck
sing them (if you can call what Donald does singing) in Mickey’s Trailer in 1938.
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