Ruth Olive Roberts (August 31, 1926 – June 30, 2011) was an American composer, organist and pianist who wrote the music for the New York Mets theme song and other popular hits.

Life and career

Roberts was born in

Port Chester, New York Port Chester is a administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the largest part of the town of Rye (town), New York, Rye in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County by populati ...

, to Robert and Lillian Mulwitz. She was educated at Port Chester High School,

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

, the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

, and in Europe. Her teachers included Heinrich Gebhard, Dr. John Hermann Loud, Tobias Matthay, and Dr. Irving J. Morgan. Roberts had a long professional collaboration with lyricist Bill Katz. Their most notable collaboration was the 1961

fight song A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand, these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...

" Meet the Mets", the official theme song of the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

. Some of Roberts' other songs included " The First Thing Ev'ry Morning (And the Last Thing Ev'ry Night)" (co-written with and recorded by

Jimmy Dean Jimmy Ray Dean (August 10, 1928 – June 13, 2010) was an American country music singer, television host, actor and businessman. He was the creator of the Jimmy Dean (brand), Jimmy Dean sausage brand as well as the spokesman for its TV comm ...

) and "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues". The latter song was first recorded by

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was a central and pioneering figure of rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texa ...

on his 1958 self-titled album. It was later recorded by

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

in 1969 for their album '' Let It Be'', but their version was not released until 1996. Roberts was married to Gene Piller, a Hollywood screenwriter. She was the mother of Michael Piller, screenwriter/producer best known for three

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

series and '' Dead Zone''. She died in Rye Brook, New York.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Ruth 1926 births 2011 deaths People from Port Chester, New York Songwriters from New York (state) People from Rye Brook, New York American women songwriters 20th-century American songwriters 20th-century American women composers Northwestern University alumni Juilliard School alumni