Missouri Waltz

The "Missouri Waltz", which had originally been a minstrel (later ragtime before it finally became country) song, became the state song under an act adopted by the General Assembly on June 30, 1949. The song came from a melody John Valentine Eppel heard Lee Edgar Settle play. Mr. Settle was a well known rag time piano player and the song he wrote and played, The Graveyard Waltz, was the actual melody for the Missouri Waltz. John V. Eppel claimed he wrote it but it was well known at the time that the melody was actually written by Lee Edgar Settle. The Missouri Waltz was arranged by Frederic Knight Logan, using lyrics written by James Royce Shannon. First published in 1914.