Marion Foster

Marion Welch (née Foster; April 18, 1851 – July 9, 1935) was an American pianist, composer, and caretaker associated with the legacy of composer Stephen Collins Foster. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 18, 1851, at the residence of her uncle, William Barclay Foster Jr. Her parents were Stephen Collins Foster, a composer, and Jane Foster. During her early childhood, her family moved multiple times within Pennsylvania, including a period in Lewistown starting in 1861. During this time, her mother and she were joined by five cousins whose father had died in an accident, and they later moved in with her grandmother.

In approximately 1870, Marion Foster married Walter Welsh, with whom she had three children. Her first child, Jessie, was raised by her grandmother and reached adulthood without her direct involvement. Marion Foster Welch was involved in securing copyright interests for her father's compositions, including "I Would Not Die in the Summertime," in 1879. Following the expiration and renewal of copyrights over Stephen Foster's songs, she was involved in legal actions concerning copyright infringement, including a 1893 lawsuit alleging violation of "Old Folks at Home."

Welch was active in commemorating her father's work. She unveiled the Stephen Foster Memorial in Highland Park, Pittsburgh, in 1900, and in 1906, she unveiled a model of a statue honoring Foster and his song "My Old Kentucky Home" in Louisville, Kentucky, where a chorus of 1,000 children performed Foster's works. In 1913, Pittsburgh residents initiated efforts to preserve Stephen Foster’s birthplace as a memorial. Fundraising efforts led to the purchase of the property at 3600 Penn Avenue in 1914 by philanthropist James H. Park. Welch and her daughter Jessie Rose became the live-in caretakers of what became known as the Stephen S. Foster Memorial Home. The city of Pittsburgh assumed financial responsibility for its upkeep in 1916.

In subsequent years, Welch participated in community events relating to Foster’s musical heritage. In 1926, she visited Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, where the community celebrated her father’s music and shared memories. In 1929, she was honored as a guest of Canonsburg during a celebration of her father’s work, performing her own compositions and her father's music. Despite being over seventy-seven years old at the time, she was noted for having a youthful outlook on life.

Welch occasionally composed music herself; she co-wrote songs such as "The Whole Woods Ring" and "On the Hills of Hollywood" with Frank S. Bracken. She was also known as a piano teacher in Pittsburgh, and many local residents received their first music instruction from her. She continued to write and interpret musical scores for friends into her later years, though little of her personal compositions have survived.

Throughout her life, Welch engaged in legal actions, including efforts to have the U.S. government honor an early contract and lawsuits against publishers for copyright infringement. She maintained correspondence and family archives, some of which are housed at the University of Pittsburgh Library System Archives Service Center and are available for research.

She spent her final years with her daughter and granddaughter. Marion Welch died from a heart attack induced by asthma on July 9, 1935, at the age of 84.