May Frances Aufderheide (May 21, 1888 to September 1, 1972)
Compositions
1908 Dusty Rag The Richmond Rag 1909 The Thriller! Buzzer Rag I'll Pledge My Heart to You 1910 Blue Ribbon Rag A Totally Different Rag A Totally Different Rag Song [1] In Bamboo Land [1] My Girl of the Golden Days [1] 1911 Novelty Rag Pompeian Waltzes	1911 (Cont) I Want a Patriotic Girl [2] Drifting in Dreams With You [3] You and Me in the Summertime [3] I Want a Real Lovin' Man [4] Pelham Waltzes 1912 Dusty Rag Song [5]    1. w/Earle C. Jones    2. w/Bobby Jones    3. w/Rudolph Aufderheide    4. w/Paul Pratt    5. w/J. Will Callahan

     May Frances Aufderheide was born into a somewhat musical family in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was born to John Henry Aufderheide, a capable violinist who chose a career in banking, and Lucy M. (Deel) Aufderheide. Some sources report varying years of birth, but the 1900 Census is fairly specific with an 1888 date, which aligns fairly well with the ages given in 1920 and 1930. John's sister May Kolmer was a talented pianist who had played public concerts with the Indianapolis Symphony, later teaching at the Metropolitan School of Music. May Frances took classical piano lessons from her aunt while in her teens, but always felt a lure to ragtime and popular music. It was likely when she was attending finishing school in the east that she set some rags down to paper. When she returned around early 1908 May was determined to have one of her pieces published. With the help of young sign painter named Duane Crabb, who drew a cover and arranged the printing, and one his friends, future composer Paul Pratt who did the musical arrangement and engraving, Dusty Rag was released.
     Crabb did not have the capability of distributing the piece beyond the boundaries of urban Indianapolis, and while May was touring Europe (as all refined girls from well-to-do families must), Dusty Rag was initially gathering dust in local music stores. Upon her return in 1908 she married young architect Thomas M. Kaufman on March 25 and they settled to the eastern part of the state in Richmond by year's end. Her desire must have been compounded when her cousin Frieda Aufderheide had The Flyer Rag published. May's father saw that she was determined to write, and spurred on in part by her ability to publish a rag on her own and by growing sales of Dusty Rag, he formed J.H. Aufderheide & Company to publish her works. John bought the Dusty Rag copyright and reissued it under his label along with her Richmond Rag. Hiring Paul Pratt to manage the enterprise, it was successful enough to garner column space in the American Musician and Art Journal in the summer of 1909. They touted May Frances as a composer with a future, noted her two pieces that were currently in demand, and told of two more that were sure to be hits. They were Buzzer Rag and The Thriller, the latter which would become her best known work.
     The Aufderheide company published other works not only by Paul Pratt, but two of May's acquaintances, Gladys Yelvington and Julia Lee Niebergall. May and her husband moved back to Indianapolis in 1911 in part because of his inability to retain work in the architecture field, and to live in a place where he had better income prospects. It was during that time that she finished her last published piano rag, Novelty Rag. The only issue from the Aufderheide company in 1912 was a song version of Dusty Rag which did not fare well. Mr. Kaufman eventually ended up working for John in the banking business as a broker, and his marriage to May reportedly remained strained in spite of financial security. In 1920 she is shown as having no occupation, not even teaching music. In 1922 the couple adopted a daughter, Lucy Kaufmann. The 1930 Census shows Thomas as an investment broker during a difficult time for that occupation. May quit playing altogether by the 1930s, and the family eventually moved to California in the late 1940s. In the 1950s Mrs. Kaufman became wheelchair bound due to arthritis, and remained so until her death. Thomas died in late 1960, and she lived in Pasadena, California another 12 years until her death. To this day, May Auderheide's rags remain among the most popular of those composed by women.