Ann Ronell was a composer and lyricist who broke ground as one of the first women to write both music and words for Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood. Born Ann Rosenblatt in Omaha, Nebraska, she adopted her professional name on the advice of George Gershwin, to whom she dedicated her most famous song, the jazz standard Willow Weep for Me, written in 1932. That composition, with its winding, blues-inflected melody, has been recorded by hundreds of artists across jazz and popular music and remains a staple of the repertoire. She also co-wrote Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf with Frank Churchill for the 1933 Disney short Three Little Pigs, which became the studio's first standalone song hit. Ronell's broader catalog includes songs, film scores, and work as a musical director and translator of operatic works. She composed the score for the 1945 film The Story of G.I. Joe with Louis Applebaum. Though her total output was modest compared to some contemporaries, the lasting presence of Willow Weep for Me in the jazz canon ensures her place among the significant songwriters of the early twentieth century.
