Richard Dehr b. April 22, 1913 / Chicago, IL Singer / Songwriter	Richard Dehr, Frank Miller (rear,) Terry Gilkyson Terry Gilkyson & the Easy Riders

Richard Dehr and Frank Miller joined forces with Terry Gilkyson to become the Easy Riders.

Rich Dehr, a professional songwriter whose songs have been aired and recorded by such singers as Doris Day, Frankie Laine, and Jo Stafford, is one who knows and sings a lot of folk music, too. He was born in Chicago, Aprill 22, 1913. He ttended Catholic boarding schools in Chicago, did some study at Notre Dame University, and had two years of further study at the University of Illinois.

Mr. Dehr has known, loved, and sung folksongs as long as he can remember. His mother taught him many early English and Irish folksongs, which she had learned from her Irish parents, Jim and Ann Cleary. One of his aunts used to sing him sad Irish ballads while doing her ironing, and he wept copiously over these sad songs. He learned also from many places in his travels as she was growing up–from people in Missouri, Florida, Louisiana, Indiana, Michigan, Connecticut, and elsewhere.

As for his folksinging career, that began in small cabarets and bars in Chicago. He uses the guitar, but often he sings unaccompanied. He is a collector of ballads in the sense that every good folksinger has his ear alert for one more good ballad. In more than half a dozen states, he has given performances, perhaps several hundred altogether. Aside from his popular-song writing, which is usually based on folk melodies, he has been musical director for some plays, such as “Abe Lincoln in Illinois,” “Distant Isle,” “Romance of Scarlet Gulch,” “Will the Mail Train Run Tonight,” and others, and he has made a good many recordings of folksongs, mainly for Majestic Records. Among these are “John Hardy,” “Green Grow the Lilacs,” “Bile Dem Cabbage Down,” “John Henry,” to mention a few.

Rich Dehr was married to Marjorie Helen Higgins in July, 1938. They have three sons: Richard, Dennis, and Jimmy, born in 1941, 1944 and 1949, respectively. These boys, Mr. Dehr reports, know more folksongs than their father: no doubt, Papa Dehr is modest! The Dehrs make their homein California.

SOURCE:  “Folksingers and Folksongs in America” by Ray M. Lawless. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1965
 -- and thank you to Pete Curry for providing this transcription.

Last revised: February 23, 2006.