Virginia Mae "Ginni" Clemmens (February 28, 1936 – February 15, 2003) was an American folk musician and songwriter in the genres of

women's music Women's music is music by women, for women, and about women. The genre emerged as a musical expression of the second-wave feminist movement as well as the labor, civil rights, and peace movements. The movement (in the USA) was started by lesbian ...

and

children's music Children's music or kids' music is music composed and performed for children. In European-influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has hi ...

. She was inducted into the

Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame The Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame (formerly Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame) is an institution founded in 1991 to honor persons and entities who have made significant contributions to the quality of life or well-being of the LGBT community in Chic ...

in 2021.

Early life and education

Clemmens was born in

Evergreen Park, Illinois Evergreen Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. In 2020, the population was 19,943. History As early as 1828, a German farming family had settled in the area of what is now Evergreen Park. In the succeeding decades, other Ge ...

, and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, the daughter of Glenn Edward Clemmens and Dorothy Cleo Groves Clemmens (later Friday). Her father was a

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

musician and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

veteran; her parents divorced in 1946, and both remarried. She attended high school and trained as a nurse in California.

Career

Clemmens worked as a pediatric nurse in California, and sometimes played her guitar or banjo for her young patients. Back in Chicago, she taught guitar and banjo classes at the

Old Town School of Folk Music The Old Town School of Folk Music is a Chicago teaching and performing institution that launched the careers of many notable folk music artists. Founded by Folk musicians Frank Hamilton and Win Stracke, and Dawn Greening, the School opened in the ...

. She performed in folk clubs and at music festivals and benefit concerts from the 1950s through the 1980s. Her first album, ''Sing a Rainbow'' (1965), and another, ''We All Have a Song'' (1977) featured children's music, and she performed in schools as part of Urban Gateways, a non-profit program to bring cultural programs to Chicago city schools. In 1976 Clemmens started her own label, Open Door Records, and released several more albums. She also helped to produce the compilation album, ''Gay and Straight Together'' (1980). She organized and performed at women's music festivals in the 1970s and 1980s.

Discography

* ''Sing a Rainbow and Other Songs for Children'' (1965) * ''I'm Looking for Some Longtime Friends'' (1976) * ''We All Have a Song'' (1977) * ''Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues'' (1981) * ''Lopin Along Thru the Cosmos'' (1983) * ''Underneath Hawaiian Skies'' (2001)

Personal life

Clemmens came out as a lesbian in the late 1970s. "When Ginni did come out, it was with a bang," said journalist Marie J. Cuda. She moved to Hawaii in 1988. She died in 2003, at the age of 66, from injuries sustained in a car accident on

Maui The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...

. In 2021, she was posthumously inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clemmens, Ginni 1936 births 2003 deaths People from Evergreen Park, Illinois Musicians from Chicago Women's music Songwriters from Illinois LGBT culture in Chicago Lesbian musicians American folk musicians LGBT people from Illinois Inductees of the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame