Ellen "Nellie" Weldon Cocroft (November 4, 1885 – June 27, 1986) was an American musical

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Early life

Ellen Estelle Weldon was born on November 4, 1885 in

Quitman, Georgia Quitman is a city in and the county seat of Brooks County, Georgia, United States. The population was 3,850 at the 2010 census. The Quitman Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Quitman was a home of James P ...

, the daughter of Richard Weldon and Virginia (Massey) Weldon. She was the eldest of three daughters, including Jeanivieve (b. 1893) and Minnie (b. 1896). Her father, Richard, was a traveling salesman, although he also owned the Quitman Marble Company (since 1886). In early 1904, Richard moved his family and the company twenty miles west to nearby

Thomasville, Georgia Thomasville is the county seat of Thomas County, Georgia, United States. The population was 18,413 at the 2010 United States Census, making it the second largest city in southwest Georgia after Albany, Georgia, Albany. The city deems itself the "C ...

, where he renamed his company the Thomasville Marble Company; among their products were memorial headstones.

Career

Nellie graduated with a degree in piano and organ performance in early 1905, at the age of 20, from Breneau College (now known as Brenau University). She married Christopher ("C.C.") Cocroft (also a musician) not long after, in April 1905. Nellie Cocroft was a church organist and choir director in Thomasville. Her husband ran a music store, and published her compositions to sell in the shop under the name "N. Weldon Cocroft". Published works by Nellie Weldon Cocroft included "When the Birds are Singing in the Springtime" (1909), "Pinywoods Rag" (1909), "When the Autumn Turns the Forest Leaves to Gold" (1909), "Georgia Cracker" (1909), and "I'se Gwine to Highball" (1910). No musical copyrights seem to have been filed by N. Weldon Cocroft after 1910. After a lengthy divorce in 1923-1924, and upon losing custody of her son, she moved to

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

, where she worked as a secretary in a law office until the late 1940s. Not much is known about her after this date.

Later life and death

She died in June 1986, at the age of 100, in Jacksonville, Florida. She is buried in Thomasville, Georgia. Her son, Charles Christopher CoCroft (1910-2001), continued the family's music publishing company until he sold the business in 2000. Cocroft's "Georgia Cracker", performed by pianist Nora Hulse (d. 2020), was included in Hulse's 2002 compilation ''Ragtime refreshments: 25 rags by women composers''. Music by Nellie Weldon Cocroft is played at the "Jazz & Swing Club" at the

Georgia Music Hall of Fame The Georgia Music Hall of Fame was a hall of fame to recognize music performers and music industry professionals from or connected to the state of Georgia. It began with efforts of the state's lieutenant governor Zell Miller to attract the music ...

References

External links

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Nellie Weldon Cocroft
at

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cocroft, Nellie Weldon 1885 births 1986 deaths American composers American pianists American centenarians People from Quitman, Georgia Brenau University alumni Women centenarians