Elizabeth Clarke

"Bluebird on Your Windowsill." Pop song by the Vancouver nurse (Carmen) Elizabeth Clarke (b Winnipeg 1911, d Vancouver 1960). The words (1947) were inspired by a small bird which perched on a windowsill of Vancouver's Hospital for Sick and Crippled Children. The melody was added later. The Rhythm Pals, who introduced the song on radio station CKNW, New Westminster, made an unsubstantiated claim that they contributed something to the final version. The song was published in 1948 by Empire Music and recorded first by Don Murphy for Aragon. Many other country artists recorded the song, and versions in 1949 by Doris Day and Tex Williams were hits in the US pop and country markets respectively. Clarke turned over all royalties to children's hospitals in Canada. The song was chosen as the theme for the 1949 US March of Dimes, and was later used in the 1986 Canadian feature film My American Cousin. In 2010 "Bluebird on Your Windowsill" was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.