Biography of a Hunch

Dawn Greening

History

Dawn's Early Light

Anyone who was involved with the School from its early days can't help but smile when remembering Dawn Greening. Former students and teachers call her "Momma Dawn," "the mother of us all," "the true heart of the School." In a way Dawn's warm heart and kind impulses helped create the Old Town School in the first place; not only did she love folk music, but she knew her friend Frank Hamilton needed an income, and offered him her home as a base for his music lessons. Maybe Steve Romanoski, fondly recalling the early days of the School, said it best: the Old Town School of Folk Music was born in Dawn's heart.

The following is excerpted from Steve's article, "Dawn Greening, The Mother of Us All," in the Summer 1980 edition of Come for to Sing.

Back in 1955, Dawn and her husband Nate were listening to Studs Terkel doing a live interview on WFMT with Bob Gibson from the Gate of Horn. Dawn was so touched by Gibson's style that she and Nate ran down to the Gate that same night to hear him in person. They were to return many times. After one performance, Dawn went up to talk to Bob, and told him about the rare 1916 Vega/Fairbanks Whyte Ladie banjo she had unwittingly bought for $17. When he saw the instrument he talked her out of selling it, and offered to give lessons. So Dawn and Nate offered to help Gibson paint and paper his apartment in exchange for banjo lessons for Nate.

As Dawn became a regular at the Gate of Horn, she met some of the great names in folk music. Many of them became more than performers who sand the music she loved; they became friends as well. Dawn offered the hospitality of the Greening home to musicians who were performing at the Gate; she offered them a home away from home. The entire Greening family became the friends of folks like José Feliciano and Peggy Seeger, and local folks - like Bob Gibson and Win Stracke.

Dawn meets Frank

Once Dawn spent an entire day preparing a fantastic meal for her dear friend Odetta. But Odetta called and asked Dawn to forgive her, but se had to cancel because a musician was passing through town from the West Coast whom she had to see. She said he was one of the finest musicians in the country, a man she saw whenever she could. He was 'the folksinger's folksinger,' said Odetta, 'the master of the art.' That cancelled dinner was the first time Dawn Greening had ever heard of Frank Hamilton.

When Dawn finally heard Frank play at the Gate, she agreed that he was one of the most brilliant musicians she had ever heard. She got to know him, and eventually suggested that he could teach her friends guitar at her house; each student would pay $2 per lesson, enough to let Frank stay in Chicago.

And now it was October, 1957. An early-evening crowd of friends had come to the Greening home with guitars in hand to learn in this new group format. Frank hoped to be able to implement a technique that had been developed by Bess Lomax Hawes in California. This first class numbered 15 people, including the entire Greening family. Groups were set up in various rooms at different levels of competence (or incompetence as Win Stracke said later). The first song to be taught was "Sloop John B."...

Dawn eventually became full-time administrator of the School, and often recruited her family (including Nate, Lesley, Lance, Laurian, and Wendy) to help on various events. The School maintained the charm and caring for the individual that Dawn had initiated in her home.

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Biography of a Hunch

These moments in Old Town School history are reprinted from Biography of a Hunch: The History of Chicago's Legendary Old Town School of Folk Music, written by Lisa Grayson.