James Henry Fillmore Jr. was
born in Cincinnati, Ohio as the
eldest of five children. In his
youth, he mastered piano,
guitar, violin, and flute, as well
as the slide trombone, which at
first he played in secret, as his
conservative religious father
believed it an uncouth and
sinful instrument. Fillmore was
also a singer for his church
choir as a boy. He began
composing at 18, with his first
published march "Higham",
named after a line of brass
instruments.
Fillmore entered the Cincinnati
Conservatory of Music in 1901.
After this, he traveled around
the United States as a circus
bandmaster with his wife, an
exotic dancer, named Mabel
May Jones. They were married
in St Louis.
In the 1920s, he was back in
Cincinnati, directing the
Shriners Temple Band, which
he turned into one of the best
marching bands in the country.
In 1938, Fillmore retired to
Miami, Florida, but kept active
in his later years organizing
and rehearsing high school
bands in Florida. Henry
Fillmore Band Hall, the
rehearsal hall for many of the
University of Miami's
performing groups, including
the Band of the Hour, stands
today as a tribute to Fillmore's
work in the band genre. There,
he wrote his final piece,
"President's March". Fillmore
lived out the rest of his days in
South Florida.
