Kerry Mills
b. Feb. 1, 1869 Philadelphia, PA, d. Dec. 5, 1948 Hawthorne, CA.
nee: Frederick Allen Mills
At age 6, he was studying violin. At age 23 (in 1892), he was head of the Violin Department in the Univ. of Michigan's Music School. In 1893, he started to concertize.

In 1893, he composed a ragtime two-step march "Rastus On Parade". This may have been the first commercial version of the Cakewalk dance. He moved to New York City in 1895, founded his own publishing firm, F.A.Mills Music, and published his own song, "Rastus on Parade". He went on to publish some more of his own songs that may have been instumental in popularizing syncopation with the Tin Pan Alley writers.
1896 "Happy Days In Dixie"
1897 "Georgia Camp Meeting" was a big success.
1897 "Let Bygones be Bygones", lyric by Charles Shackford.
1899 "Mr Rufus" was a popular song originally published as a ragtime
piano piece. Later, W. Murdock Lind added the lyric.
1904 "Meet Me In St. Louis", was theme for the 1904 St. Louis Exposition
(And revived in the 1944 Judy Garland film of the same name.)
1904 "When The Bees Are In The Hive",lyric by Alfred J. Bryan
1907 "Take Me Around Again", lyric by Ed Rose
"Red Wing", lyric by Thurland Chattaway
1908 "Any Old Port In A Storm", lyric by Arthur J. Lamb
"The Longest Way 'Round Is The Sweetest Way Home", lyric Ren Shields.

At the end of WW1, Mills no longer composed, but devoted all his time to his publishing business. He died in Hawthorne, CA.
[from Big Bands Data Base] Ed