USA OREGON : Oregon State Song
State Song of Oregon
Oregon, My Oregon

• Author: John Andrew Buchanan (1863-1935)
• Composer: Henry Murtagh (1890-1961)
• Adopted: February 12 1927
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• Further details: The song "Oregon, My Oregon," the state's official song has since the early 1920's been sung by nearly every child in Oregon and has been sung more times by more people than any other song composed in Oregon.
  
  JOHN ANDREW BUCHANAN (1863-1935) was a municipal judge who liked to write poetry. HENRY MURTAGH (1890-1961) was a professional musician - a theatre organist in the silent movie days when the artist at the keyboard of the mighty Wurlitzer drew billing almost equal with the picture.
  
  John Buchanan's lyrics and Henry Murtagh's music came together as the winning entry in a competition sponsored by the Society of Oregon Composers in 1920. The music was published later the same year with an endorsement by the state superintendent of public instruction. In 1927 the legislature made it the official state song. It is reprinted, words and music, in every new edition of the Oregon 'Bluebook'.
  
  John Buchanan died in 1935 at his home in Astoria. A number of years ago, Henry Murtagh left Portland, where he had been at several theatres and lastly at the United Artists, for Los Angeles. Old associates in Oregon have not heard of him since World War II days, when he travelled through Portland with a bond drive group.