Editing Stephen Foster (section)

==Illness and death==
[[File:Illustration of SC Foster headstone in Alleghney cemetery 1900 monumen posibly.jpg|thumb|175px|right|A ''Pittsburgh Press'' illustration of the original headstone on Stephen Foster's grave]]Foster became sick with a fever in January 1864. Weakened, it is possible he fell in his hotel in the Bowery and cut his neck; he may also have sought to take his own life.<ref name=joc>{{Cite book|last=O'Connell|first=JoAnne|title=The Life and Songs of Stephen Foster: a Revealing Portrait of the Forgotten Man Behind Swanee River, Beautiful Dreamer, and My Old Kentucky Home|publisher=Rowman and Littlefield|year=2016|isbn=9781442253865|location=Lanham, Maryland|page=321}}</ref> His writing partner [[George Cooper (poet)|George Cooper]] found him still alive but lying in a pool of blood. Foster died in Bellevue Hospital three days later at the age of 37.<ref>{{cite web |work= American Experience |title= More about the film ''Stephen Foster'' |url= https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/foster/filmmore/pt.html |publisher=PBS |access-date=October 2, 2015}}</ref> His leather wallet contained a scrap of paper that simply said, "Dear friends and gentle hearts", along with 37 cents in Civil War scrip and three pennies.

Other biographers describe different accounts of his death.<ref name="ocon2007">{{cite thesis|last=O'Connell|first=JoAnne H.|date=2007|title=Understanding Stephen Collins Foster, His World and Music|publisher=University of Pittsburgh|url=http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/7365/1/OConnell_ETD2007.pdf|access-date=June 25, 2016}}</ref> Historian JoAnne O'Connell speculates in her biography, ''The Life and Songs of Stephen Foster'', that Foster may have killed himself.<ref name=joc/> As O'Connell and musicologist Ken Emerson have noted, several of the songs Foster wrote during the last years of his life foreshadow his death, such as "The Little Ballad Girl" and "Kiss Me Dear Mother Ere I Die." Emerson says in his 2010 ''Stephen Foster and Co.'' that Foster's injuries may have been "accidental or self-inflicted".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Emerson|first=Ken|title=Stephen Foster and Co.: Lyrics of America's First Great Popular Songs|publisher=Library of America|year=2010|isbn=978-1598530704|location=New York|pages=10}}</ref>

[[File:Western Union Telegram reporting Foster's death Jan 14 1864.JPG|thumb|Telegram that communicated Stephen Foster's death addressed to his brother Morrison Foster]]

The note inside Foster's wallet is said to have inspired [[Bob Hilliard]]'s lyric for "[[Dear Hearts and Gentle People]]" (1949). Foster was buried in the [[Allegheny Cemetery]] in Pittsburgh. After his death, Morrison Foster became his "literary executor". As such, he answered requests for copies of manuscripts, autographs, and biographical information.<ref name="Root"/> After his death, "[[Beautiful Dreamer]]", one of the best-loved of his works, was posthumously published in 1864.<ref>{{cite web |title= "The Last Chapter" |url= http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/end.htm |work= Stephen Collins Foster |publisher= W. Tomaschewski |access-date= August 4, 2012 |author= W. Tomaschewski |archive-date= June 18, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120618130016/http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/end.htm |url-status= dead }}</ref>