[2] She received training in art music and visited Europe on a grand tour, yet decided to compose in ragtime.

[2] May Aufderheide was a member of the Indianapolis ragtime community that included Paul Pratt, Cecil Duane Crabb, J. Russel Robinson, Will B. Morrison, Julia Lee Niebergall, and Gladys Yelvington.

Other songs include: "I Want A Patriotic Girl" with Bobby Jones, "I Want A Real Lovin' Man" with Paul Pratt, and "Dusty Rag" with J.

[2] The family moved to California in 1947 where they lived in a home called "Rose Villa", designed by May's husband, on the grounds of the Huntington Sheraton Hotel in Pasadena.

Though she spent the last several years of her life using a wheelchair due to debilitating arthritis, she outlived her husband and daughter, dying in Pasadena, California, aged 84.