Jean Ritchie

Jean Ritchie was born to Abigail (née Hall) Ritchie (1877–1972) and Balis Wilmar Ritchie (1869–1958) of Viper, an unincorporated community in Perry County in the Cumberland Mountains of southeastern Kentucky. Along with the Combs family of adjacent Knott County,{{efn|The Combs family repertoire formed the basis of a doctoral thesis on the British ballads in America by Professor and dulcimer specialist Josiah Combs of Berea College for the Sorbonne University, published in Paris in 1925. Combs' book was translated by D. K. Wilgus in 1967 as Folk-Songs of the Southern United States (Folk-Songs Du Midi Des Etats-Unis) (Austin: University of Texas Press). }} the Ritchies of Perry County were one of the two "great ballad-singing families" of Kentucky celebrated among folk song scholars.{{cite book|last=Ritchie|first=Jean|title=Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians as Sung by Jean Ritchie|contributor-last1=Lomax|contributor-first1=Alan|contributor-link1=Alan Lomax|contributor-last2=Pen|contributor-first2=Ron|contribution=Forward|publisher=University of Kentucky Press|edition=2nd|date=1997|page=1}} Jean's father Balis had printed up a book of old songs entitled Lovers' MelodiesCharles Wolfe and Jean Ritchie, foreword to new edition of Jean Ritchie, Jean Ritchie's Swapping Song Book with photographs by George Pickow (University of Kentucky Press, [1952] 2000), p. 1. in 1910 or 1911, which contained the most popular songs in Hindman at that time, including "Jackaro", "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender", "False Sir John and May Colvin" and "The Lyttle Musgrave".{{Cite web |title=Bluegrass Messengers – The Ritchie Family (Jean) – (KY) from 1757 to Balis |url=http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/the-ritchie-family-jean--ky-from-1757-to-balis.aspx |access-date=December 9, 2021 |website=www.bluegrassmessengers.com}} However, Balis preferred playing the Appalachian dulcimer to singing, often singing entire ballads in his head along with his dulcimer playing.{{Cite web |title=Mudcat Café Message 2249126 |url=https://mudcat.org/detail.cfm?messages__Message_ID=2249126 |access-date=July 14, 2021 |website=mudcat.org}} In 1917, the folk music collector Cecil Sharp collected songs from Jean's older sisters May (1896–1982) and Una (1900–1989),{{Cite web |title=Notamun Town (Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) CJS2/10/4073) |url=https://www.vwml.org/record/CJS2/10/4073 |access-date=October 23, 2020 |website=The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library |language=en-gb}}{{Cite web |title=Good Old Man (Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) CJS2/10/4075) |url=https://www.vwml.org/record/CJS2/10/4075 |access-date=October 23, 2020 |website=The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library |language=en-gb}}{{Cite web |title=Jack Went A-Sailing (Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) CJS2/10/3944) |url=https://www.vwml.org/record/CJS2/10/3944 |access-date=October 23, 2020 |website=The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library |language=en-gb}} whilst her sister Edna (1910–1997) also learnt the old ballads, much later releasing her own album of traditional songs with dulcimer accompaniment.{{Cite web |title=Edna Ritchie |url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/2789790-Edna-Ritchie |access-date=October 23, 2020 |website=Discogs |language=en}} Most of the Ritchie siblings seemed dedicated to performing and preserving traditional music.{{Cite web |title=Kitty Ritchie |url=https://pinemountainsettlement.net/?page_id=57838 |access-date=January 14, 2021 |website=Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections |language=en-US}} Many of the Ritchies attended the Hindman Settlement School, a folk school where students were encouraged to cherish their own backgrounds and where Sharp found many of his songs.Peters, Brian (2018): "Myths of 'Merrie Olde England'? Cecil Sharp's Collecting Practice in the Southern Appalachians", Folk Music Journal, Vol. 11, No. 3, p. 15. It is possible that many of the Ritchies' songs were absorbed from neighbors, relatives, friends, school mates and even books, as well as being passed through the family.

The paternal ancestors of the Ritchie family, Alexander Ritchie (1725–1787){{Cite web |last=Gwynallen |first=Richard |date=November 24, 2016 |title=The Ritchie and Keith Families |url=https://richardgwynallenblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/24/the-ritchie-and-keith-families/ |access-date=May 31, 2023 |website=The Kitchen Table |language=en}} and his son James Ritchie Sr. (1757–1818) of Stewarton, East Ayrshire, Scotland,{{Cite web |title=FamilySearch.org |url=https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LZP7-NRS/james-ritchie-sr-1757-1818 |access-date=March 31, 2023 |website=ancestors.familysearch.org}} emigrated to the United States.{{when?|date=February 2025}} James Ritchie Sr. fought in the Revolutionary War in 1776 (including at the Siege of Yorktown), and lived in Virginia before settling on Carr Creek Lake in what is now Knott County, Kentucky, with his family. When he drowned in the lake in 1818, his family moved back to Virginia except his son Alexander Crockett Ritchie Sr. (1778–1878), Jean Ritchie's great-great-grandfather.{{Cite web |title=FamilySearch.org |url=https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LBQ8-SKF/alexander-crockett-ritchie-sr.-1778-1878 |access-date=March 31, 2023 |website=ancestors.familysearch.org}}

Most of the Ritchies later fought on the Confederate side in the Civil War, including Jean's paternal grandfather Justice Austin Ritchie (1834–1899), who was 2nd Lieutenant of Company C of the 13th Kentucky Confederate Cavalry.{{Cite web |title=Soldier Details – The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers.htm |access-date=March 31, 2023 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}

Alan Lomax wrote that:

They were quiet, thoughtful folks, who went in for ballads, big families and educating their children. Jean's grandmother was a prime mover in the Old Regular Baptist Church, and all the traditional hymn tunes came from her. Jean's Uncle Jason was a lawyer, who remembers the big ballads like "Lord Barnard". Jean's father taught school, printed a newspaper, fitted specs, farmed and sent ten of his fourteen children to college.Lomax, foreword to Jean Ritchie, Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians, p. 1.

File:Cross Mountain TN.jpg]]As the youngest of 14 siblings, Ritchie was one of ten girls who slept in one room of the farming family's farm house. Ritchie and her family sang for entertainment, but also to accompany their manual work. When the family gathered to sing songs, they chose from a repertoire of over 300 songs including hymns, old ballads, and popular songs by composers such as Stephen Foster, which were mostly learnt orally and sung unaccompanied. The Ritchies would sing improvised harmonies to accompany some of their songs, including "Pretty Saro".{{Cite web |title=Mudcat Café Message 1422423 |url=https://mudcat.org/detail.cfm?messages__Message_ID=1422423 |access-date=July 14, 2021 |website=mudcat.org}}

Ritchie graduated from high school in Viper and enrolled in Cumberland Junior College (now a four-year University of the Cumberlands) in Williamsburg, Kentucky,{{Cite web |title=Mountain Born: The Jean Ritchie Story |last=Carter-Schwendler |first=Karen L. |url=https://education.ket.org/resources/mountain-born-jean-ritchie-story/ |access-date=March 31, 2023 |website=KET Education |language=en-US}} and from there graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in social work from the University of Kentucky in Lexington in 1946. At college she participated in the glee club and choir as well as learning the piano.[http://music.yahoo.com/jean-ritchie/biography Biography of Jean Ritchie], music.yahoo.com; accessed January 9, 2014. According to Ritchie, Maud Karpeles later said "[Ritchie] cannot be termed a folksinger, because she has been to college," which she took as a compliment.{{Cite web |title=Mudcat Café Message 2598185 |url=https://mudcat.org/detail.cfm?messages__Message_ID=2598185 |access-date=July 14, 2021 |website=mudcat.org}}

During World War II, she taught in an elementary school.{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Christopher |title=Library Homepage: Mountain Dulcimers in the Appalachian Artifacts Collection: Related Stories and Information |url=https://libraryguides.berea.edu/dulcimers/info |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=libraryguides.berea.edu |language=en}} Meanwhile, in 1946, whilst still in Kentucky, Ritchie was recorded performing traditional songs with her sisters Edna, Kitty, and Pauline by Mary Elizabeth Barnicle{{Cite web |title=Cherry Tree (Roud Folksong Index S273256) |url=https://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S273256 |access-date=October 2, 2020 |website=The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library |language=en-gb}}{{cite web |last=Winick |first=Stephen |title=Jean Ritchie, 1922–2015 |url=http://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2015/06/jean-ritchie-1922-2015/ |access-date=May 30, 2023 |website=Library of Congress, Folklife Today |date=June 11, 2015}} {{PD-notice}} and by Artus Moser.{{Cite web |title=The Two Sisters (Roud Folksong Index S224465) |url=https://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S224465 |access-date=October 2, 2020 |website=The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library |language=en-gb}}

File:Young Alan Lomax, playing the guitar.jpg]]

After graduating she got a job as a social worker at the Henry Street Settlement in New York, where she taught her Appalachian songs and traditions to local children. This caught the attention of folk singers, scholars, and enthusiasts based in New York, and she befriended Woody Guthrie, Oscar Brand, Pete Seeger, and Alan Lomax. To many, Ritchie represented the ideal traditional musician, due to her rural upbringing, dulcimer playing, and the fact her songs came from within her family.

In 1948, Ritchie shared a stage with The Weavers, Woody Guthrie, and Betty Sanders at the Spring Fever Hootenanny.{{Cite web |title=Remembering Jean Ritchie on Hobo's Lullaby {{!}} WKCR 89.9FM NY |url=https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/wkcr/story/remembering-jean-ritchie-hobos-lullaby |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=www.cc-seas.columbia.edu}} By October 1949, she was a regular guest on Oscar Brand's Folksong Festival radio show on WNYC.

File:Jean Ritchie in 1950.jpg

In 1949 and 1950, she recorded several hours of songs, stories, and oral history for Lomax in New York City.{{Cite web |title=Alan Lomax Archive |url=http://research.culturalequity.org/audio-guide.jsp |access-date=October 27, 2019 |website=Research.culturalequity.org |archive-date=October 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191026000845/http://research.culturalequity.org/audio-guide.jsp |url-status=dead }} All of Lomax's recordings of Ritchie are available online courtesy of the Lomax Digital Archive.{{Cite web |title=Jean Ritchie 1949 and 1950 {{!}} Lomax Digital Archive |url=https://archive.culturalequity.org/node/779 |access-date=July 5, 2021 |website=archive.culturalequity.org |language=en}} She was recorded extensively for the Library of Congress in 1951.

By 1951, Ritchie became a full-time singer, folksong collector, and songwriter. Elektra records signed her and she released her first album of family songs, Singing the Traditional Songs of Her Kentucky Mountain Family (1952), which included family versions of such songs as "Gypsum Davy", "The Cuckoo", and "The Little Devils", a song which had particularly fascinated Cecil Sharp when he heard it from Una and Sabrina Ritchie in 1917.

File:Image reproduced by permission of the National Folklore Collection, University Dublin.jpg|234x234px]]

In 1952, Ritchie was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to trace the links between American ballads and the songs from England, Scotland, and Ireland.{{cite web |title=Field Trip: Festival-Anthology recordings |url=http://clancybrothersandtommymakem.com/fa_1954_field_trip.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230232716/http://clancybrothersandtommymakem.com/fa_1954_field_trip.htm |archive-date=December 30, 2013 |access-date=March 6, 2013}} As a song-collector, she began by setting down the 300 songs that she already knew from her mother's knee. Ritchie and her husband, George Pickow, then spent 18 months tape recording, interviewing and photographing singers, including Elizabeth Cronin, Tommy and Sarah Makem, Leo Rowsome, and Seamus Ennis in Ireland; Jeannie Robertson and Jimmy MacBeath in Scotland; and Harry Cox and Bob Roberts in England. When people asked what sort of songs they were looking for, Ritchie would sometimes ask them if they knew Barbara Allen and sing a few verses for them.{{Cite web |title=Mudcat Café Message 1619519 |url=https://mudcat.org/detail.cfm?messages__Message_ID=1619519 |access-date=July 14, 2021 |website=mudcat.org}} In 1954, Ritchie released some of the British and Irish recordings on the album Field Trip, side by side with Ritchie family versions of the same songs. A broader selection was issued by Folkways on the two LPs Field Trip–England (1959) and As I Roved Out (Field Trip–Ireland) (1960). Some transcriptions and photographs were later published in Ritchie's book From Fair to Fair: Folksongs of the British Isles (1966).

While in Britain, Ritchie sang at concerts for the English Folk Dance and Song Society, including its annual Royal Albert Hall festival, and presented several BBC radio programmes, appearing on The Ballad-Hunter which was presented by her friend Alan Lomax.{{Cite web |title=Broadcast – BBC Programme Index |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/2fad35a03fcd40e988adbf3f11b3de3b |access-date=July 12, 2021 |website=genome.ch.bbc.co.uk |date=August 14, 1959}} On one occasion, Maud Karpeles took Ritchie and Pickow to visit Ralph Vaughan Williams and his wife Ursula, for whom she sang "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies"; Pickow photographed the four of them together.{{Cite web |title=Mudcat Café Message |url=https://mudcat.org/detail.cfm?messages__Message_ID=2460651 |access-date=July 14, 2021 |website=mudcat.org}}

In 1955, Ritchie wrote a book about her family called Singing Family of the Cumberlands.{{Cite web |last=Library of Congress |title=Singing family of the Cumberlands. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak. |url=https://lccn.loc.gov/55005554?loclr=blogflt |access-date=October 16, 2016 |website=Library of Congress LCCN Permalink for 550005554}} The book documented the role of the family songs in everyday life, such as accompanying everyday tasks on the farm and in the home, or being sung when gathered on the porch in the evening to "sing the moon up." Singing Family of the Cumberlands is widely regarded as an American classic, and continues to be used in American schools.

As well as work songs and ballads, Ritchie knew hymns from the "Old Regular Baptist" church she attended in Jeff, Kentucky.{{Cite journal |last=Boggs |first=Beverly |date=1982 |title=Religious Songs Remembered: Sweet Rivers, Jean Ritchie. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40932463 |journal=Appalachian Journal |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=306–310 |jstor=40932463 }} These were sung as "lining out" songs, in a lingering soulful way, including the song "Amazing Grace,"{{Cite news |title=Program Explores Universal Appeal of 'Amazing Grace' |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1990/08/25/program-explores-universal-appeal-of-amazing-grace/13161fd2-a683-40ae-955e-2c8efea3bc38/ |access-date=March 30, 2023 |issn=0190-8286}} which she helped popularize. Family versions of "Amazing Grace" and the hymn "Brightest And Best" were released on the 1959 album Jean Ritchie Interviews Her Family, With Documentary Recordings.{{Cite web |title=The Ritchie Family Of Kentucky With Jean Ritchie – Jean Ritchie Interviews Her Family, With Documentary Recordings |url=https://www.discogs.com/The-Ritchie-Family-Of-Kentucky-With-Jean-Ritchie-Jean-Ritchie-Interviews-Her-Family-With-Documentary/master/1200844 |access-date=July 5, 2021 |website=Discogs |language=en}}

Ritchie directed and sang at the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959, and served on the first folklore panel for the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Her album Ballads from Her Appalachian Family Tradition (1961) compiled many traditional Ritchie family versions of Child Ballads, including "False Sir John," "Hangman," "Lord Bateman," "Barbary Allen," "There Lived an Old Lord (Two Sisters)," "The Cherry-Tree Carol" and "Edward."{{Cite web |title=Jean Ritchie: Ballads from her Appalachian Family Tradition |url=https://folkways.si.edu/jean-ritchie/ballads-from-her-appalachian-family-tradition/american-folk/music/album/smithsonian |access-date=July 4, 2021 |website=folkways.si.edu |language=en-US}}

Her traditional version of "My Dear Companion" (Roud 411) appeared on the album Trio recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris.{{Cite web |title=Dolly Parton: My Dear Companion – Selections From The Trio Collection |url=https://treasurycollection.com/products/dolly-parton-my-dear-companion-selections-from-the-trio-collection |access-date=March 31, 2023 |website=Treasury Collection}} Judy Collins recorded some of Ritchie's traditional songs, "Tender Ladies" and "Pretty Saro," and also used a photograph by George Pickow on the front of her album "Golden Apples of the Sun" (1962).

In 1963, Ritchie recorded an album with Doc Watson entitled Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson Live at Folk City (1963). The traditional Appalachian song "Shady Grove" was popularized by Doc Watson after he most likely learnt it from Jean Ritchie, who in turn learned it from her father Balis Ritchie.{{Cite web |title=Shady Grove, Version 5 – Jean Ritchie |url=http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/shady-grove--version-5-jean-ritchie.aspx |website=Bluegrass Messengers}}

As folk music became more popular in the 1960s, new political songs overshadowed the traditional ballads. Whilst Ritchie largely stuck to the traditional songs, she wrote and recorded Kentucky-themed songs with wider implications, such as the destruction of the environment by loggers and the strip-mining techniques of coal firms.{{Cite web |title=Remembering Appalachian folksinging legend Jean Ritchie {{!}} Facing South |url=https://www.facingsouth.org/2015/06/remembering-appalachian-folksinging-legend-jean-ri.html |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=www.facingsouth.org}} These songs included "Blue Diamond Mines," "Black Waters," and "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore," which Johnny Cash covered after he heard June Carter Cash sing it.{{Cite news |last=Finn |first=Robin |date=November 7, 2008 |title=At This Hall, They're Singing Her Song |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/nyregion/long-island/09colli.html |access-date=July 5, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}} Ritchie had written numerous songs about mining under the pseudonym "'Than Hall," to avoid troubling her non-political mother, and believing they might be better received if attributed to a man.Sally Rogers, [http://www.cmnonline.org/PIOArticle.aspx?ID=42 "Sowing Seeds of Love for Traditional Music: An interview with Jean Ritchie"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001142756/http://www.cmnonline.org/PIOArticle.aspx?ID=42 |date=October 1, 2011 }}, Pass It On! The Journal of the Children's Music Network, Winter 2003; retrieved January 10, 2010.

"Nottamun Town" (which Ritchie had learned from her uncle Jason and performed in 1954 on Kentucky Mountains Songs and in 1965 on A Time For Singin) was covered by Shirley Collins (1964), Bert Jansch (1966), and Fairport Convention (1969).{{Cite web |title=Nottamun Town / Nottamun Fair (Roud 1044) |url=https://mainlynorfolk.info/shirley.collins/songs/nottamuntown.html |access-date=July 12, 2021 |website=mainlynorfolk.info}} Bob Dylan used the tune for his 1963 song "Masters of War" on the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.Clinton Heylin, Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957–1973, p. 116

From her "uncle" Jason, Ritchie had learned to alter tunes and lyrics from verse to verse and performance to performance, viewing elements of improvisation and variation as a natural part of traditional music. Her versions of family songs and original compositions vary slightly between performances, and she often created new songs by using bits of material from existing ones or adding newly composed verses to flesh out song fragments she recalled from her childhood.

Her record None but One (1977), which won the 1977 critics' award in Rolling Stone, introduced her music to a younger audience and secured her place in mainstream folk music.

Her 50th anniversary album was Mountain Born (1995), which features her sons Peter and Jonathan.{{Cite news |last=Harmon |first=John |title=Jean Ritchie, folk, mountain music legend: An appreciation from the AJC archives |language=English |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |url=https://www.ajc.com/entertainment/music/jean-ritchie-folk-mountain-music-legend-appreciation-from-the-ajc-archives/PgSwQBNsKMBGNuBs7RU5MJ/ |access-date=March 31, 2023 |issn=1539-7459}}

Ritchie was the subject of the 1996 documentary Mountain Born: The Jean Ritchie Story, which was made for Kentucky Educational Television.

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Ritchie is credited with bringing national and international attention to the Appalachian dulcimer as the main initiator of the "dulcimer revival." Distinct from the hammer dulcimer, the Appalachian dulcimer (or "mountain dulcimer") is an intimate indoor instrument with a soft, ethereal sound, probably first played by Appalachian Scotch-Irish immigrants in the early half of the nineteenth century.{{Cite web |last=S |first=Joe |date=January 19, 2017 |title=Dulcimer Origins – A Look at the Mountain Dulcimer |url=https://dulcimer.net/history-appalachin-dulcimer-mountain-dulcimer/ |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=Best Dulcimers & Dulcimer Accessories Online |language=en-US}} The Ritchies strummed their dulcimers with a goose-feather quill.

Her father Balis (1869–1958) had played the Appalachian dulcimer but forbade his children to touch it. At age five or six, Ritchie defied this prohibition and covertly played the instrument. By the time Balis decided to teach her how to play, Jean was already accustomed to the instrument, so father labeled her as a "natural born musician". By 1949, Jean's dulcimer playing had become a hallmark of her style. After Jean's husband George Pickow made her one as a present,{{Cite web |last=Institution |first=Smithsonian |title=Appalachian Dulcimer, used by Jean Ritchie |url=https://www.si.edu/object/appalachian-dulcimer-used-jean-ritchie%3Anmah_1803595 |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=Smithsonian Institution |language=en}} the couple decided there might be a potential market for them. Morris Pickow, Pickow's uncle, set up an instrument workshop for them under the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn. At first, they were shipped to New York in an unfinished state by Ritchie's Kentucky relative, Jethro Amburgey, then back to the woodworking instructor at the Hindman Settlement School. George placed a finish and Jean tuned the dulcimers, and soon they had sold 300 dulcimers. Later, the couple manufactured the dulcimers from start to finish themselves.

Ritchie's use of the dulcimer and her tutorial, The Dulcimer Book (1974), inspired folk revival musicians both in the US and Britain to record songs using the instrument. Because fans kept asking her "Which album has the most dulcimer?", she finally recorded an album called The Most Dulcimer in 1984,{{cite web |last1=Library of Congress |title=The most dulcimer [sound recording] |url=https://lccn.loc.gov/87752816 |website=Library of Congress |year=1984 |access-date=October 16, 2016}} which included the dulcimer on every song.{{Citation |title=Jean Ritchie – The Most Dulcimer (1984, Vinyl) |year=1984 |url=https://www.discogs.com/Jean-Ritchie-The-Most-Dulcimer/release/5984864 |language=en |access-date=July 7, 2021}}

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Ritchie was married to photographer George Pickow from 1950 until his death in 2010, with whom she had two sons, Peter (1954–) and Jonathan (1958–2020).{{Cite web |title=Singer and musician Jonathan Pickow dies at age 62 |url=https://www.wymt.com/2020/12/08/singer-and-musician-jonathan-pickow-dies-at-age-62/ |access-date=March 31, 2023 |website=www.wymt.com |date=December 8, 2020 |language=en}} She lived in Baxter Estates, New York, and was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2008.{{Cite news |last=Pangalos |first=Mary |date=December 2, 1958 |title=Life Is a Song to Balladier From Kentucky Mountains |work=Newsday |page=37 |id={{ProQuest| }}}}{{Cite news |last=Herzig |first=Doris |date=March 24, 1966 |title=A Bit of Kentucky on LI |work=Newsday |page=111 |id={{ProQuest| }}}}{{cite web|title=The Long Island Music Hall of Fame Second Induction Award Gala on October 30 at the Garden City Hotel|website=Long Island Music Hall of Fame|date=2008|url=http://www.limusichalloffame.org/releases/2008/induct_100908.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101130100642/http://www.limusichalloffame.org/releases/2008/induct_100908.html|archive-date=30 November 2010}}

In early December 2009, Ritchie was hospitalized after suffering a stroke which impaired her ability to communicate.[http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2009/12/22/news/6657397.txt Report of Ritchie's hospitalization], thesunchronicle.com; December 22, 2009; accessed January 9, 2014. She recovered to some degreeOn June 8, 2010, Ritchie's son Jon reported: "Great news! Mom is coming home tomorrow. She has surpassed all expectations and is talking, laughing and in general being herself."; [http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=130047#2923444 Jean Ritchie recovers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306134628/http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=130047#2923444 |date=March 6, 2012 }}, mudcat.org then returned to her home in Berea, Kentucky. A friend reported on her 90th birthday, "Jean has been living quietly in Berea for the last few years, in good spirits and well cared for by neighbors and family."{{Cite web |url=https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=148466 |title=Jean Ritchie Turns 90 |first=Max |last=Spiegel |website=Mudcat.org |access-date=October 27, 2019}} She died at home in Berea on June 1, 2015, aged 92.{{cite news |first=Margalit |last=Fox |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/arts/music/jean-ritchie-who-revived-appalachian-folk-songs-dies-at-92.html |title=Jean Ritchie, Lyrical Voice of Appalachia, Dies at 92 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 2, 2015 |access-date=June 5, 2015}}{{cite news |first=Luqman |last=Adeniyi |url=http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2e264b56d60f4a10ab3e0cc85c1b23f2/kentucky-folksinger-dulcimer-player-jean-ritchie-dies-92 |agency=Associated Press |title=Folk Music Singer, Scholar Jean Ritchie Dies at 92 |date=June 2, 2015 |access-date=June 5, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150603233307/http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2e264b56d60f4a10ab3e0cc85c1b23f2/kentucky-folksinger-dulcimer-player-jean-ritchie-dies-92 |archive-date=June 3, 2015}}

• Singing the Traditional Songs of Her Kentucky Mountain Family (1952)
• Appalachian Folk Songs: Black-eyed Susie, Goin' to Boston, Lovin' Hanna (195–)
• Kentucky Mountains Songs (1954)
• Field Trip (1954)
• Courting Songs (1954) (with Oscar Brand)
• Shivaree (1955)
• Songs from Kentucky (1956)
• American Folk Tales and Songs (1956)
• Saturday Night and Sunday Too (1956)
• Children's Songs & Games from the Southern Mountains (1957)
• Singing Family of the Cumberlands (1957)
• The Ritchie Family of Kentucky (1959)
• Riddle Me This (1959) (with Oscar Brand)
• Carols for All Seasons (1959)
• Field Trip – England (1959){{Cite web |title=Field Trip-England |url=https://folkways.si.edu/field-trip-england/celtic-world/music/album/smithsonian |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings |language=en-US}}
• British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains, Vol. 1 Folkways (1960) (Child ballads){{Cite web |title=British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains, Volume 1 |url=https://folkways.si.edu/jean-ritchie/british-traditional-ballads-in-the-southern-mountains-volume-1/american-folk-old-time-world/music/album/smithsonian |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings |language=en-US}}
• British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains, Vol. 2 Folkways FA 2302 (1960) (Child ballads){{Cite web |title=British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains, Volume 2 |url=https://folkways.si.edu/jean-ritchie/british-traditional-ballads-in-the-southern-mountains-volume-2/american-folk/music/album/smithsonian |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings |language=en-US}}
• As I Roved Out (Field Trip-Ireland) (1960){{Cite web |title=As I Roved Out (Field Trip-Ireland) |url=https://folkways.si.edu/as-i-roved-out-field-trip-ireland/celtic-world/music/album/smithsonian |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings |language=en-US}}
• Ballads from Her Appalachian Family Tradition (1961)
• Precious Memories (1962){{Cite web |title=Precious Memories |url=https://folkways.si.edu/jean-ritchie/precious-memories/american-folk-old-time/music/album/smithsonian |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings |language=en-US}}
• The Appalachian Dulcimer: An Instructional Record (1964){{Cite web |title=The Appalachian Dulcimer: An Instructional Record |url=https://folkways.si.edu/jean-ritchie/the-appalachian-dulcimer-an-instructional-record/music-instruction/music/album/smithsonian |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings |language=en-US}}
• Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson Live at Folk City (1963)
• A Time For Singing (1965)
• Marching Across the Green Grass & Other American Children's Game Songs (1968){{Cite web |title=Marching Across The Green Grass and Other American Children's Game Songs |url=https://folkways.si.edu/jean-ritchie/marching-across-the-green-grass-and-other-american-childrens-game-songs/music/album/smithsonian |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings |language=en-US}}
• Clear Waters Remembered (1974) Geordie 101 Lifton, Sarah (1983) The Listener's Guide to Folk Music. Poole: Blandford Press; pp. 96–97
• Jean Ritchie At Home (1974) Pacific Cascade Records LPL 7026
• None But One (1977)
• High Hills and Mountains (1979)
• Sweet Rivers (1981) June Appal JA 037 (hymns)
• Christmas Revels. Wassail! Wassail! (1982)
• The Most Dulcimer (1984){{Cite web |title=Artist: Jean Ritchie {{!}} SecondHandSongs |url=https://secondhandsongs.com/artist/9927/all?sort=date |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=secondhandsongs.com}}
• O Love Is Teasin' (1985)
• Kentucky Christmas, Old and New (1987)
• Childhood Songs (1991)
• Mountain Born (1995)
• Legends of Old Time Music (2002, DVD)
• Ballads (2003; vol. 1 and 2 above, issued on a single CD){{Cite web |title=Jean Ritchie: Ballads from her Appalachian Family Tradition |url=https://folkways.si.edu/jean-ritchie/ballads-from-her-appalachian-family-tradition/american-folk/music/album/smithsonian |access-date=March 30, 2023 |website=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings |language=en-US}}

• {{cite book |last=Ritchie |first=Jean |others=Illustrated by Maurice Sendak |title=Singing Family of the Cumberlands |year=1955 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8131-0186-6 |lccn=55005554}}
• {{cite book |last=Ritchie |first=Jean |title=The Dulcimer Book; Being a Book about the Three-stringed Appalachian Dulcimer, Including Some Ways of Tuning and Playing; Some Recollections in its Local History in Perry and Knott Counties, Kentucky |year=1963 |publisher=Oak Music |location=New York |lccn=63020754}}
• {{cite book |last=Ritchie |first=Jean |others=illustrated by Don Bolognese |title=Apple Seeds and Soda Straws |year=1965 |publisher=H.Z. Walck |location=New York |lccn=65013223}}
• Ritchie, Jean (1965/1997) Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians {{ISBN|978-0-8131-0927-5}}. The original 1965 edition was issued by Oak Publications, the 1997 expanded version by University Press of Kentucky. The task of transcribing Ritchie's sung music into musical notation was carried out (1965) by Melinda Zacuto and Jerry Silverman.
• Jean Ritchie's Swapping Song Book {{ISBN|978-0-8131-0973-2}}
• Jean Ritchie's Dulcimer People (1975)
• {{cite book |year=1953 |editor-first=Jean |editor-last=Ritchie |title=A Garland of Mountain Song; Songs from the Repertoire of the Ritchie family of Viper, Kentucky |place=New York |publisher=Broadcast Music |edition=New |lccn=m53001732}}
• {{cite book |last=Ritchie |first=Jean |title=Celebration of Life: Her songs, Her poems |publisher=Geordie Music Publishing |isbn=0-8256-9676-3 |location=Port Washington |date=1971}}
• {{cite book |last=Ritchie |first=Jean |first2=Susan |last2=Brumfield |date=2015 |title=Jean Ritchie's Kentucky Mother Goose: Songs and Stories from My Childhood |location=Milwaulkee, WI |publisher= Hal Leonard Books |isbn=978-1-4950-0788-0}}

• Rolling Stone Critics Award in (1977) for her album None But One
• Folk Alliance's Lifetime Achievement (1998)
• National Heritage Fellowship (2002) awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honor for folk and traditional arts in the United States{{cite web |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/2002 |title=NEA National Heritage Fellowships 2002 |author= |website=Arts.gov |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |access-date=January 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200521114940/https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/2002 |archive-date=May 21, 2020 |url-status=dead}}

• List of the Child Ballads

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{discogs artist|Jean Ritchie}}
• {{imdb name|2918591}}
• [http://www.floridamemory.com/Collections/folklife/folklife_cd2.cfm Live 1976 recording of Ritchie performing "Nottamun Town" from the Florida Folklife Collection (made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150602231421/http://digitalcollections.ucsc.edu/cdm/search/collection/p265101coll25/searchterm/Jean%20Ritchie/order/date Photographs of Jean Ritchie while artist in residence at UC Santa Cruz in 1978, from the UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080320095521/http://www.woodsongs.com/showlist.asp Videos on Woodsongs Archive]
• # 159: She sang and played her dulcimer as sole guest in 2000; [https://web.archive.org/web/20110703033655/http://128.163.130.14/woodsongs-159.wmv 84 minutes.]
• # 450: Was as one of 3 guests in "Celebration of the Mountain Dulcimer" July 7, 2007; [https://web.archive.org/web/20110703034121/http://128.163.130.14/woodsongs-450.wmv 94 minutes.]

{{Kentucky Women Remembered|state=collapsed}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Jean}}

Category:1922 births

Category:2015 deaths

Category:American folk singers

Category:Songwriters from Kentucky

Category:American women singers

Category:American women folklorists

Category:American folklorists

Category:American women musicologists

Category:Appalachian dulcimer players

Category:Appalachian culture

Category:American folk-song collectors

Category:National Heritage Fellowship winners

Category:Folk musicians from Kentucky

Category:University of Kentucky alumni

Category:People from Perry County, Kentucky

Category:Elektra Records artists

Category:Riverside Records artists

Category:Tradition Records artists

Category:Musicians from Appalachia

Category:People from Port Washington, New York

Category:American women songwriters

Category:Singers from Kentucky

Category:Flying Fish Records artists

Category:21st-century American women