“Stay Summer Breath” was submitted for copyright by W. C. Peters of Louisville on December 30, 1848, though it was most likely published earlier than that because an advertisement by Peters on July 15, 1848, describes the song as “just published.”

According to Evelyn Foster Mornweck’s The Chronicles of Stephen Foster’s Family:

In Cincinnati, Eliza Foster was happy in renewing her old friendship with Mr. and Mrs. Michael P. Cassilly, former Pittsburgh neighbors whose little daughters, Ann and Mary, had gone to St. Joseph’s Academy with Charlotte. Ann had married Dr. N. B. Marshall, and it was their daughter, Sophie, who played and sang for Stephen when he returned to Cincinnati in 1846. She had a lovely soprano voice, and Stephen liked to take his compositions to her for rehearsal. “Stay, Summer Breath,” published in 1848, was dedicated to Sophie Marshall.