Chilton Price was a songwriter, primarily known for country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 songs which became pop music

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 hits as well.

She was born Chilton Searcy near Fern Creek, Kentucky

Fern Creek, Kentucky

Fern Creek is a historic community in southeastern Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 20,009 at the 2008 census. In 2003, The area was annexed to the city of Louisville as part of a merger between the city and Jefferson County's unincorporated communities. Fern Creek was...

, the daughter of Chesley Hunter Searcy, a lawyer, and Lillian Searcy, a pianist. At the age of 5 she was taught a couple of piano chords by her father, who was an amateur musician who played by ear. She studied music appreciation at the University of Louisville

University of Louisville

The University of Louisville is a public university in Louisville, Kentucky. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General...

. During the 1930s and 1940s she played violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

 for the Louisville Orchestra

Louisville Orchestra

The Louisville Orchestra is the primary orchestra in Louisville, Kentucky and has been called the cornerstone of the Louisville arts scene. It was founded in 1937 by Robert Whitney and Charles Farnsley, Mayor of Louisville...

. She got a job as a music librarian at the Louisville

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

 radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 station WAVE, where country music artists Pee Wee King

Pee Wee King

Julius Frank Anthony Kuczynski , known professionally as Pee Wee King, was an American country music songwriter and recording artist best known for co-writing "The Tennessee Waltz"....

 and Redd Stewart

Redd Stewart

Henry Ellis Stewart , better known as Redd Stewart, was an American country music songwriter and recording artist who co-wrote "The Tennessee Waltz" with Pee Wee King in 1948.-Biography:...

 were regular performers.

She showed them some songs she had written, and they convinced her to publish them; since she had little experience in the commercial music world, she gave them partial credit, and so the songs "Slow Poke

Slow Poke

"Slow Poke" is a popular song. It is credited to three writers: Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart, and Chilton Price. Actually Price wrote the song in 1951, as she thought the song described her friend, King, very well. King recorded the song and Stewart did the vocal...

" and "You Belong to Me

You Belong to Me (1952 song)

"You Belong to Me" is a pop music ballad from the 1950s. The singer reminds his/her lover that, whatever exotic locales and sights he/she experiences, "you belong to me." It is credited to three writers: Pee Wee King, Chilton Price, and Redd Stewart...

" were published with credits given as King/Stewart/Price. The former became a big hit for King, with a vocal by Stewart; the latter was a major hit for Jo Stafford

Jo Stafford

Jo Elizabeth Stafford was an American singer of traditional pop music and jazz standards and occasional actress whose career ran from the late 1930s to the early 1960s...

, and later was covered

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 by The Duprees

The Duprees

The Duprees is an American musical group of doo-wop style which had a series of hit records in the early 1960s.-Career:The group originated in the early 1960s in Jersey City, New Jersey, and comprised William L. Dickinson High School students Michael Arnone, Joe Santollo, John Salvato, Tom...

. She was said to be happy with the arrangement, even though she had to share credit for songs she wrote herself, being grateful for the break she got in this way. She wrote other songs under her name only, including "Never Look Back" in 1954.

Personal life

She was married for 65 years to Louisville businessman Robert L. Price, and had a daughter, two grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. She was widowed in 2000. She died in Louisville on January 14, 2010, aged 96.

External links

• list of songs composed by Chilton Price
• Touring on a tune, a 2002 interview with Chilton Price from the Chicago Sun-Times
  Chicago Sun-Times
  The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...