Jim Garland, composer of folk songs and labor radical in the 1930's, died in Washougal early this morning he was 73. The cause of death was not immediatly determined. Straubs Funeral Home in Camas is in charge of arrangements. Garland was blackballed in the coal fields of Bell and Harlan Counties in Kentucky in 1935, stemming from his organizing activities and his general role in a strike there in 1932. Garland wrote songs about life in the coal country, many of them published. Two of them; "Rock in my sweet babys arms" and "I don't want your millions mister"; still are popular today. Garland left the coal country in 1935, for New York City, where he became friends and sang there in cafe's with Woody Gutherie and Pete Seegar. During World War II he came to Van Couver to work in the ship yards. In 1944 he founded a broom factory here, which he operated for 21 years. Partially blind from a defect inside his eyelids , he learned broom making from the New York Association of the Blind. In the 1950's, Mr. Garland was on the late Sen. Joe McCarthy's list of those in which he suspected as being involved in communist activities. "What is a Communist?" Mr. Garland was said to have asked at the time."If I knew what one was, maybe I would be one" For the past 12 years, Mr. Garland has been writing a history of eastern Kentucky Coalmining . his book is being edited by the University of Kentucky. Of his life, Garland said, "you must be radical about something, or you are dead."
Jim Garland, composer of folk songs and labor radical in the 1930's, died in Washougal early this morning he was 73. The cause of death was not immediatly determined. Straubs Funeral Home in Camas is in charge of arrangements. Garland was blackballed in the coal fields of Bell and Harlan Counties in Kentucky in 1935, stemming from his organizing activities and his general role in a strike there in 1932. Garland wrote songs about life in the coal country, many of them published. Two of them; "Rock in my sweet babys arms" and "I don't want your millions mister"; still are popular today. Garland left the coal country in 1935, for New York City, where he became friends and sang there in cafe's with Woody Gutherie and Pete Seegar. During World War II he came to Van Couver to work in the ship yards. In 1944 he founded a broom factory here, which he operated for 21 years. Partially blind from a defect inside his eyelids , he learned broom making from the New York Association of the Blind. In the 1950's, Mr. Garland was on the late Sen. Joe McCarthy's list of those in which he suspected as being involved in communist activities. "What is a Communist?" Mr. Garland was said to have asked at the time."If I knew what one was, maybe I would be one" For the past 12 years, Mr. Garland has been writing a history of eastern Kentucky Coalmining . his book is being edited by the University of Kentucky. Of his life, Garland said, "you must be radical about something, or you are dead."
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Son of Oliver Perry Garland and Sarah Elizabeth Lucas
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