402 GIRL SCOUTS printing trade, though he was by this time an experienced songsmith with an expanding list of contacts in the music industry. He had collaborated in composing several songs for the vaudev ille stage and also had published songs with the Remick Publishing Company, a leading national music publisher. His next big break in the music industry came in 1921, when he met Egbert Van Alstyne, a brilliant composer, pianist, and song plugger 10 years Gillespie’s senior, who had worked at the Remick Publishing Company, had written three hit songs, and was then living in Chicago. From Van Alstyne, with whom Gillespie soon paired in songwriting, Gillespie learned the requisite technical skills of lyrical composition. During the 1920s, in collaboration with Van Alstyne and others, he wrote 88 songs, including, in 1923, the lyrics for “You’re in Kentucky Sure as You’re Born,” a brief hit that was for Kentuckian Gillespie a par ticu lar delight. By then he was writing with composers, band leaders, and vaudevillians nationwide, and his lyrical compositions, most of which were written in a matter of minutes, were becoming Tin Pan Alley staples. He wrote his favorite song of all time, “Drifting and Dreaming,” in 1925 and his first classic, “Breezin’ Along with the Breeze” in 1926. Homesick, the Gillespies returned to Covington in 1929. Haven worked enough in the printing trades during the hard times of the 1930s to maintain his union card, but his main work was as a songwriter. He soon made two important friends, Covington radio owner L. B. Wilson, who liked Gillespie and helped promote his songs, and New York native Freddie Coots, who became his songwriting collaborator and longtime friend. Having picked up his father’s fondness for whiskey, Gillespie thrived in Covington, especially after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Dividing his time between work as a printer and trips to Chicago and New York City to promote his songs, he was frequently, when home, seen at the Covington tavern of an old friend, ex-vaudevillian Kern Aylward. Aylward had opened a saloon in 1934 at 530 Scott St., in the heart of Covington’s Irish neighborhood, and Gillespie was a regular customer who joined Aylward and others in singing and general merriment. Gillespie loved telling stories and drinking with his friends at Aylward’s Saloon and later, during the 1950s, could be found doing the same at Arcaro’s Tavern, a bar in Erlanger operated by the father of famed jockey Eddie Arcaro. The year 1934 was magical for the new songwriting team of Coots (music) and Gillespie (lyrics). That year they wrote their Christmas classic, “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” an immediate hit that charted a second time in 1947 when Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters recorded it. Another CootsGillespie national hit, “You Go to My Head,” was made popu lar in 1938 by the Glen Gray Orchestra, with vocalist Kenny Sargent. A popu lar torch song with sophisticated lyrics, it was recorded by top singers such as Billie Holliday, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee, and, a generation later, Linda Ronstadt backed by the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. Between 1939 and 1947, Gillespie published just 14 songs, with only one, “The Old Master Painter” (1945), later (in
1950) becoming a charted success. Gillespie’s alcoholism was beginning to affect his work. However, he had an idea that temporarily stayed the decline. In 1949 he published “That Lucky Old Sun,” a megahit that Gillespie had first thought about writing several years earlier. He was inspired by sitting in his backyard along Montgomery St. in Covington, watching the sun pass over the twin spires of Mother of God Catholic Church. There followed, during the next three decades, a long list of songs written by Gillespie, only one of which, “God’s Country,” sung by Frank Sinatra, charted. Haven Gillespie published his last song, “I Love to Dream,” in 1972. A recovering alcoholic, he was living at the time in Las Vegas. In a songwriting career spanning six decades, 1911–1972, more than 300 of Gillespie’s songs were published, he collaborated with more than 100 other songwriters, and he wrote songs for eight musical revues and variety shows. Forty-four different music publishers printed Gillespie’s works; 20 songs that he wrote charted, including 3 that were number one (“Breezin’ Along with the Breeze” [1926], “Honey” [1929], and “That Lucky Old Sun” [1949]); and his songs were heard in 17 movies. Haven Gillespie, one of the world’s most prolific songwriters, died of cancer in 1975. He was cremated and his remains were buried in Bunker’s Memory Gardens in Las Vegas, next to his wife, Corene. First, William E., and Pasco E. First. Drifting and Dreaming: The Story of Songwriter Haven Gillespie. St. Petersburg, Fla.: Seaside Publishers, 1988. Reis, Jim. “Songwriter Gillespie Brought Santa to Town,” KP, February 16, 2004, 4K. Steitzer, Stephanie. “Santa Song No Hit with Writer,” KP, December 22, 2003, 1K.
James C. Claypool
GIRL SCOUTS. Girl Scouting, which came to Northern Kentucky only a few years after the organization began in the United States, helps cultivate values, social conscience, and self-esteem in young girls, while teaching them critical life skills that will enable them to succeed as adults. Through Girl Scouts, girls discover the fun, friendship, and power of girls together. The organization serves all girls of ages 5 to 17 through various levels: Daisy, Brownie, Junior, Cadette, and Senior. The U.S. branch of the Girl Scouts was founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912 in Savannah, Ga. By 1918 there were several Girl Scout troops in the tri-state area. Because so many Northern Kentucky girls were interested in the program, volunteer leaders soon formed a Girl Scout council in Northern Kentucky, separate from the Cincinnati council. At the time, Girl Scouts participated in numerous events such as first aid, bed-making, and signaling. As the number of Girl Scout troops in Northern Kentucky grew, four more councils were chartered. In 1950 Kentucky Girl Scout leaders combined the five smaller councils into one large council to serve the entire Northern Kentucky region. With this merger, the Licking Valley Girl Scout Council received its charter in 1951 and set up an office in Newport. The headquarters were
relocated to Covington in 1973 and to Erlanger in October 1986. In order to comply with standards set by the national organization, the council changed its legal name to Girl Scout Council of Licking Valley Inc. in April 2000. The council served 12 counties: Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Fleming, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, Mason, Owen, Pendleton, and Robertson. In 1955 the Girl Scout Council of Licking Valley received from the Campbell family a generous donation of 211 acres in Fleming Co. for use as a camp. This property, which became known as the Campbell Mountain Girl Scout Camp, opened to the first group of girls in 1959. It eventually included two camping units, each containing platform tents, restrooms, a shower house, a unit house– bunkhouse, and a cabin for staff housing. Camp facilities also include a dining hall, a swimming pool, a health center, a camp office, a trading post, and a craft center. In 2007 the property was sold and the facility was closed. In 2001 the cities of Newport and Covington chose to honor the thousands of past and present Girl Scouts of Northern Kentucky by naming a new bridge the Licking Valley Girl Scout Bridge. The bridge, a replacement for the former ShortWay Bridge, connects Newport and Covington. Community ser vice is at the heart of the Girl Scout program. Girl Scouts stresses social responsibility and the importance of helping others. Licking Valley Girl Scouts conduct a variety of ser vice projects, from collecting used books for libraries or baby clothes for women’s shelters, to cleaning up local waterways, participating in civic events, and sending personal supplies and Girl Scout Cookies to military personnel stationed overseas. In 2006 the Licking Valley Council became part of the Girl Scouts–Wilderness Road Council, which still maintains a local office in Erlanger. Because of the merger, one of the Northern Kentucky counties—Carroll Co.—was transferred to the Kentuckiana Girl Scouts Council. “Council of Girl Scouts Is Started,” KTS, March 1, 1918, 10. “Goodies Being Readied for GI,” KP, February 14, 2003, 1K. “Our Scouts—Activities of Northern KY Scouts Individuals Listed,” KP, January 12, 1918, 2.
Elizabeth Comer Williams
GIRTY, SIMON (b. 1741, Chambers Mill [now Dauphin], Pa.; d. 1818, Mauldin, Canada). Simon Girty, who later fought with the British in the Revolutionary War, spent his early childhood at Sherman’s Creek, in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania. While he was a teenager, his family moved into Fort Granville, in modern central Pennsylvania, because of Indian attacks near their home. In 1755 the fort was overrun by a group of French soldiers and their Indian allies. Simon’s stepfather was burned at the stake and his mother and her four children, including Simon, were taken captive. Simon soon learned the Seneca language, was adopted into the Seneca Tribe, and was given the Indian name of Katepacomen. As part of a peace