Mary Rodgers, daughter of the composer Richard Rodgers, was born January 11, 1931, in New York City. She graduated from Brearley, a girls' private school in New York, then attended Wellesley College but left in her senior year to marry Julian Beaty. She was divorced from Beaty in 1957 and married Henry Guettel in 1961. She has five children. Rodgefs achieved her first major success with the score for the Broadway musical Once Upon a Mattress, which captivated audiences, charmed the critics, and introduced a new star—Carol Burnett. Rodgers also wrote the score for The Mad Show, which appeared off-Broadway, and contributed to the book and album Free to Be . . . You and Me, featuring Mario Thomas. In addition, she worked on a number of children's shows, including a long stint with Leonard Bernstein for the young people's concerts of the New York Philharmonic.

In the early...