Stanley 's health began to fail after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake left him near destitute . He and his wife later moved to Denver , where he died in 1909 at the age of sixty-one . News of his death was carried in newspapers nationwide , including '' The New York Times , Chicago Daily Tribune '' and '' Los Angeles Times '' . In a column printed some two months after his death , a musician friend recalled Stanley 's disappointment at failing to succeed as a composer of grand opera . " When he lived here ( San Francisco ) he often talked with a quaint kind of melancholy about the high ambitions of his youth , and how they had become humbler as he got older . A man 's ambitions dwindle " he once said . " like a girl 's matrimonial aims . At 10 a girl wants a fairy prince and nothing less . At 20 she is resigned to a millionaire Duke . At 25 a member of Congress is good enough . At 30 a country minister will do nicely and at 35 she 'll take anything from a song writer down . " Stanley and his wife Franziska , who died in 1919 , are interred at Denver 's Fairmount Cemetery
1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
Paul Stanley (composer)