Ella Jenkins (1924–2024), beloved by young children throughout the United States and in many other nations, is widely regarded as the “First Lady of Children’s Music.” Her ability to connect with children through music and excite in them a sense of joy, wonder, and creativity is admired by teachers, parents, fellow performers, and music education professionals.

A self-taught musician, Ella was born in St. Louis and grew up on Chicago’s South Side. As a child, she listened to her Uncle Food play blues harmonica, she heard gospel music in local churches, and she learned dances, rhymes, and songs from each neighborhood where her family moved. Her role models were Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, and Danny Kaye.

By the early 1950s, Ella was performing in Chicago folk clubs. In 1956, she quit her job as a youth worker at a local YWCA, “paid up all my bills, bought a little hi-fi, and created a job for myself.”

That same year, at the suggestion of folklorist Kenneth Goldstein, she took a demo tape of her songs to Moses Asch of Folkways Records in New York City. Asch auditioned her recording and immediately offered her a contract, saying, “You have something very promising here.” In 1957, Folkways Records issued Ella’s first album, a ten-inch LP entitled Call and Response: Rhythmic Group Singing.

Her innovative use of call-and-response to teach children came from her own African-American traditions and from her early encounters with the musics of India, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East—which she first heard on Folkways Records. Ella recalled that as a teen, “I spent a lot of time in the booth of one particular record store, listening to Folkways LPs of music from around the world. I was always interested in different cultures. I traveled around the world in that booth.”

Decades and more than two dozen recordings later, Ella became Smithsonian Folkways Recordings’ top-selling artist. Her albums (first recorded for Folkways Records and now part of the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings collection) are a kaleidoscope of sound and sensibility. They reflect the quality, diversity, and authenticity that drew Ella to Folkways Records in the first place.

Ella was known and loved by children, parents, and educators across America and around the world. Long before “multicultural” or “special needs” became standard concepts in education, she pioneered the use of call-and-response not only to reach children from diverse backgrounds and those with special needs. She recognized each child—regardless of ability, race, religion, or ethnicity—as an individual with something special to contribute to the world. Her global approach to music through sound and rhythm opened up worlds of understanding and learning for generations of children near and far.

A legendary figure in children’s music, Ella appeared with Mr. Rogers and Barney. She appeared several times at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and other special Smithsonian events, including the Birthday Party on the Mall in 1998 and the Wolf Trap concert for the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music^™. She received dozens of honors and awards, including Lifetime Achievement Awards from ASCAP in 1999 and the Grammy Association in 2004, plus Grammy nominations for Ella Jenkins and a Union of Friends (2000) and Sharing Cultures with Ella Jenkins (2003). She had her own publishing company, Ell-Bern Publishing, and served as a valued member of the Folkways Advisory Board.

Ella continues to travel and perform late into her life, always believing that “it is never too early to teach children about different ways of speaking, different rhythms, and different ways of moving their bodies.”

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