Paul Dresser's Grave

St. Boniface Cemetery 4901 N. Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60640

Theodore Dreiser’s brother, Paul Dresser, enjoyed an illustrious career as a songwriter. He wrote “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away,” which became Indiana’s state song in 1913. A case has been made that Dresser was the first blues singer. Theodore Dreiser wrote a biographical sketch about his brother called “My Brother Paul” that was included in his 1930 book, Twelve Men. Dreiser’s essay credits his brother for several notable literary achievements (in addition to songwriting), including as a humor columnist for a small-town newspaper and a scriptwriter for A Green Goods Man. That essay provided the basis for a 1942 biopic musical film, My Gal Sal, about Dresser and singer Sally Elliot. Dresser wrote the song, “My Gal Sal” in 1905, a song that gained popularity even before Al Jolson recorded it in 1947. In the film, which stars Victor Mature and Rita Hayworth, Dresser flees his small Indiana hometown to pursue a career as a musician, in defiance of his father’s wishes for him to become a minister. He ends up falling in love with singer Sally, for whom he’s been writing songs. Dresser accumulated a lot of wealth in his lifetime, but his alcoholism and financial failures (Dreiser claimed he “had no more business skill than a fly”) left him broke, to the point that he was forced to live with his sister in Chicago in his final years. Dresser died at age 48 in 1906, but his body was held almost a year until the funeral arrangements could be paid in full. In Dreiser’s essay, published 13 years after his brother’s death, the author, in characterizing Paul’s charitable nature, writes about how he would carelessly give money to those in need, including to help bury people. Dreiser, after protesting his brother’s frivolity, quotes Paul as saying, “I can’t say I haven’t got it, can I? And anyhow, what’s the use being so hard on people? We’re all likely to get that way.” His grave in St. Boniface Cemetery remained unmarked until 1922, when the Indiana Society of Chicago had a boulder from the banks of the Wabash River brought to Chicago to mark his burial site. 

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