Ella Jenkins: ‘The First Lady of Children’s Music’

Ella Jenkins, American singer-songwriter and pioneer of children’s music, died on November 9^th, 2024, as a centenarian. She leaves behind a legacy of championing children and their stories through song. Heavily inspired by the call-and-response music of the church, Jenkins utilised the form to encourage audience participation and inspire children across the globe to engage with their culture, history, and storytelling. Over the course of her life Jenkins solidified children’s music as a genre to be taken seriously, not only by educators but by musicians and record labels alike. Fellow musicologist Patricia Shehan Campbell said of Jenkins

She is a pioneer in her early and continuing realization that children have something to sing about, that the essence of who they are may be expressed through song, and that much of what they need to know of their language, heritage, and current cultural concepts may be communicated to them through song.[1]

Watch Ella Jenkins perform live at the Smithsonian:

Music was at the core of Jenkins’ life from the very beginning. Her uncle introduced her to the blues as a little girl, she heard the gospel music of her local church as they broadcast the services out onto the streets every Sunday, and she took weekly tap-dancing lessons at the theatre. The theater often took the students to the Regal Theater in Bronzeville, Chicago, to see renowned performers such as Count Basie and Cabell Calloway III.[2] As her family moved around often throughout her early years, Jenkins picked up various new rhymes and songs from her peers from each place.

After graduating from DuSable High School in 1942, Jenkins took an admin role at the University of Chicago. Keen to return to education and encouraged by three of her fellow colleagues, she enrolled to Woodrow Wilson Junior College before going on to earn a BA in Sociology with minors in Child Psychology and Recreation from San Francisco State University. In her spare time, she would sing in various coffeehouses and restaurants.

Upon returning to Chicago after graduating from SFSU in 1951 Jenkins began volunteering in recreation centres, where she would write songs for the children. From there, she was offered the role of Teenage Program Director at the Young Women’s Christian Association and was later invited to perform on a children’s show called The Totem Club. The host channel, Window to the World (WTTW) were so taken by Jenkins that they offered her a Thursday afternoon slot. Jenkins became one of the first African American television hosts when she created This is Rhythm to be aired on WTTW. She used the platform to highlight a diverse repertoire of musicians and performers.

When Jenkins met Kenneth Goldstein, an American folklorist and producer, he recommended that she take her demo tapes to Folkways Records.[3] The company released her debut album Call-And-Response: Rhythmic Group Singing in 1957.

From there, Ella Jenkins went on to release more than forty albums over more than six decades. She not only established children’s music but supported other educators in implementing music programs to inspire children in classrooms across the US and beyond. In 2004, she was recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys.

“Before Jenkins,” writes Mike Peed in an obituary, “children's music in the United States consisted primarily of simplified, often cartoonish renditions of classical music.”[4] Ella Jenkins redefined children’s music and harnessed the power of music to inspire, educate, and highlight the stories of young people around the world.

Learn more about Ella Jenkins here.

[1] Campbell, Patricia Shehan (2002). "Recording Reviews". Ethnomusicology. 46 (2): 357.

[2] Linbong, Andrew. Ella Jenkins, First Lady of Children’s Music, dies at 100 [Online] Available https://www.npr.org/2024/11/11/nx-s1-1088428/ella-jenkins-first-lady-of-childrens-music-dies-at-100. 2024.

[3] Dickson, Susan. Ella Jenkins [Online] Available https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/ella-jenkins. 2017.

[4] Peed, Mike. Ella Jenkins, Musician Who Found an Audience in Children, Dies at 100 [Online] Available https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/10/obituaries/ella-jenkins-dead.html. 2024.