Chris Smith (14)

American performer and composer, born October 12, 1879 – died October 4, 1949.
Most known for co-writing "Ballin' the Jack" alongside Jim Burris.
Smith was born in Charleston, South Carolina; In his late teens he traveled with a black medicine show playing piano and possibly singing. Smith teamed up with his boyhood friend Jim Burris.

Throughout his career he also collaborated with Ellis Reynolds. It's not clear if Smith was bought out, had fallen out of the music business, or had simply lost control of his own catalog. The remaining years of his life are shrouded in mystery up to his death in 1949.