Kay Swift, Composer, Dies at 95; Hits Included 'Can This Be Love?'
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THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIES FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1993' Kay Swift, Composer, Dies at 95; Hits Included 'Can This Be Love?' By STEPHEN HOLDEN Kay Swift, who wrote the music for Gershwin played his music. the popular standards "Can't We Be Katharine Faulkner Swift was born Friends?," "Fine and Dandy" and on April 19, 1897, in New York City, "Can This Be Love?," died yesterday where she grew up and studied piano, at the Alzheimer's Resource Center in composition and orchestration. After Southington, Conn. She was 95. playing in a classical trio, she was a She died of Alzheimer's disease, rehearsal pianist for the 1927 show "A which was diagnosed three years ago, Connecticut Yankee." Two years later, said a granddaughter, Katharine Web- she cracked Broadway as a composer er. with "Can't We Be Friends?" In 1930, Two of her most famous songs were "Fine and Dandy," opened on Broad- written for the 1930 hit musical "Fine way, where it ran for 236 perform- and Dandy," which had lyrics by Paul ances. James (the pen name of her husband, When the choreographer George James Paul Warburg, a banker) and Balanchine came to the United States, was the first Broadway show for which Miss Swift wrote the music for his all the music was composed by a wom- ballet "Alma Mater," a 1935 spoof of an. "Can't We Be Friends?" was intro- the Harvard-Yale football game. She Kay Swift in the 1930's. duced in 1929 in the hit revue "The was director of light music at the 1939 Little Show," where it was sung by World's Fair, the same year she mar- Libby Holman to Clifton Webb. ried Faye Hubbard, a rodeo cowboy. way, a radio announcer, also ended in Miss Swift was romantically in- The marriage, which ended in 1947, divorce. volved with George Gershwin in the was celebrated in her chatty 1993 Miss Swift also contributed songs to 1930's, and she and Warburg divorced memoir, "Who Could Ask for Anything "The Garrick Gaieties" (1930) and in 1935. Years later, Miss Swift was an More?," which was made into the mov- wrote most of the score for "Paris '90," invaluable resource to Gershwin schol- ie "Never a Dull Moment," with Irene a one-woman revue for Cornelia Otis ars because she could fill in gaps in Dunne and Fred MacMurray. Skinner, in 1952. A song cycle for her manuscripts and remember how A third marriage, to Hunter Gallo- grandchildren, "Reaching for the Brass Ring," was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1953. She also wrote songs for Radio City Music Hall revues, pieces for three world's fair exhibitions and commemorations for several national organizations, in- cluding the Camp Fire Girls and the American Medical Association. SWIFT—Kay. On January 28, in her 96th year, alter a long absence Miss Swift made her last public ap- caused by Alzhelmers Disease. pearance in 1986 at Merkin Concert She was a songwriter oar excel- Hall in Manhattan. lence, a beloved mother, grand- mother and great-grandmother, She is survived by two daughters. and a wonderful friend to many. April Gagliano of Rome and Andrea Contributions may be sent to: The Kay Swift Archive r,7 the John Kaufman of Los Angeles, and six Errick Jackson Music Library at grandchildren. Vale University, P.O. Box 5469, Yale Station, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-S469. A musical memorial will be planned. WIFT —Kay We record with deer, sorrow the death of our member Kay Swift on January 28 In NY, Morton Gould, President ASCAP .