Idabelle Smith Firestone

Idabelle Smith Firestone (November 10, 1874 July 7, 1954) was an American composer and songwriter. Biography She was born in Minnesota City, Minnesota, to Eliza B. Allen (18431923) and George T. Smith (18411921), the youngest of five children. Her father was the inventor of a flour milling process that turns out “Patent” and “Half Patent” flour. She learned to play piano and organ as a girl and studied music at Alma College, Ontario. On 20 November 1895, she married Harvey S. Firestone, who had begun the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company five years earlier. She was the mother of Harvey S. Firestone Jr., and Leonard Firestone, the grandmother of Brooks Firestone, and the great-grandmother of William Clay Ford Jr., Andrew Firestone, and Nick Firestone. She was not the only composer in the Firestone family. Her granddaughter Elizabeth Firestone (b. 1922) composed music for the film Once More, My Darling (1949), which starred Robert Montgomery and Ann Blyth. She died in her sleep at her home, Harbel Manor, after a long illness on July 7, 1954, at age 79 in Akron, Ohio. Musical career She became a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1948. Her