Tom Ennis

(December 21, 1888 - August 11, 1931) Piper Tom Ennis was born in Nebraska, USA. The Ennis family moved to Chicago by 1900 where his father, John, was working as a police officer under the command of Captain Francis O'Neill. Tom had already begun to learn the uilleann pipes from his father by this time. By the time he was drafted during World War I, Ennis was employed as an actor but had already recorded a set of reels, "The Maid That Left The County/Drowsy Maggie/Around The World For Sport" in New York on April 17, 1917. By the 1930s, Ennis and his family were living in New York and he was listed as a professional musician in the census (specifically as an Irish bagpiper). Mr. Ennis was known to his radio audience as the Irish piper. Sadly, Tom Ennis suddenly died on August 11, 1931 due to heart disease in Hillsdale, Michigan. From the Detroit Free Press: HILLSDALE, Mich., Aug. 11 Thomas Francis Ennis, 42 years old, Chicago radio entertainer, died on Jonesville near here where he and Mrs. Ennis had stopped over night enroute to Detroit. Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan) Wed, Aug 12, 1931