G. Estabrook

G. Estabrook is the pen name used by composer and singer Caroline Augusta “Gussie” Clowry (October 23, 1845 – April 18, 1897), whose opera The Joust was the first opera by an American woman to be published. With musical talent from an early age, “Gussie” had many songs published throughout her life, one of which “reached the extraordinary sale of over one million copies.” Biography Born on October 23, 1845, in Geneva, Wisconsin, she was the only daughter of General Experience Estabrook and Caroline Augusta Maxwell. She had one brother, Henry Dodge, who was nine years younger. In January 1855, General Experience Estabrook moved with his family to Omaha, Nebraska after being appointed United States Attorney by President Franklin Pierce. In 1860, at the age of 15, she met Colonel Robert Charles Clowry of Chicago, the superintendent of the Missouri and Western Union Telegraph Company; and later, president and general manager of the Western Union Telegraph Company. They were wed five years later, on August 29, 1865, in Omaha, Nebraska. By 1879, the couple had moved to St. Louis before settling in Chicago. In 1882, the first production of “The Joust” was performed in her home town of Oma