Danks, Harriet (1842-1924)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1924 Mar 25 p. 1

Birth date: 1842

text of obituary:

EARTHLY REWARDS NOT ALWAYS AS DESERVED

The seeming injustice which this world sometimes meets [sic] out to those whom mortals believe to be deserving of its sweetest rewards is aptly illustrated in the press story which read:

“Alone in a Brooklyn rooming house, Mrs. Harriet Danks, who inspired the love song, “Silver Threads Among the Gold,” found release Wednesday night (March 19th) from a life in which sentiment and realities were strangely juggled.

The woman of 82 died estranged from her children by the very song she had inspired and so obscurely had she lived in latter years that her death did not become known until today.

She was buried this afternoon after simple funeral services in a Brooklyn chapel.

“Silver Threads Among the Gold” was written by her husband, Hart P. Danks, who also died alone in a Philadelphia lodging house in 1903. He was then estranged from his wife, to whom, in 1874, he had composed the love song, which swept the country.

After Dank’s [sic Danks’] death, two suits over royalties from the song brought the estrangement of Mrs. Danks from her three children — Albert V. Danks, Gertrude Danks, and Mrs. Albert Danks Builder, who since has died.

The elder Danks was credited with the authorship of more than 1,000 songs, but the one inspired by his wife, was by far the most popular. At one time he was basso profundo of Grace church, New York.