Sisters In Song; Women Hymn Writers. Leslie Clay

Taylor 1876-1943

      “Bless This House”

      May started teaching piano at age fifteen to earn a living. She married just after turning nineteen, but continued playing in a trio. In 1912, she made a daring move for the time: she went to London to establish herself as a composer and left her children in the care of their father. By 1914, she earned enough to bring the family to England. She wrote about 500 songs and is the only Australian woman composer to win both local and international recognition before World War II. May also wrote under at least ten pseudonyms. This allowed her to publish more as most publishing houses wouldn’t publish more than four of her songs per year.

      The words to her most famous song were written by an English woman, Helen Taylor, a poet and her friend. It was published in 1927 with the title “Bless the House.” A few years later, tenor John McCormack changed the title to “Bless This House” and it became one of his bestselling recordings. It is frequently found in spiritual/inspirational collections.

      Carrie Elizabeth Ellis Breck

      1855-1934

      “Face to Face”

      Carrie’s family spent most of her early life in New Jersey. She married Frank Breck and they moved to Portland, Oregon in the 1910s. She was devoted to her husband and five daughters. By her own admission, she could not carry a tune. But she had a good sense of rhythm and she wrote more than 2000 poems. She was physically weak, and had to take frequent rests while doing her many chores. At those times, she would sit in her favorite rocking chair and write poetry. She said: “I penciled verses under all conditions: over a mending basket, with a baby on my arm, and sometimes even when sweeping or washing dishes, my mind moved in poetic meter.”

      She occasionally sent her poems to a composer of gospel hymns, Grant Colfax Tuller, with the hope he would set them to music. When the verses of “Face to Face” arrived in the mail one day, Tuller had just completed the music for a song with lyrics he didn’t fully like. Carrie Breck’s words were a perfect fit, and so the song was made complete.

      Blanche Kerr Brock

      1888-1958

      “Beyond the Sunset”

      Blanche was a talented singer and pianist who honed her skills at the Indianapolis Conservatory of Music and the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Blanche wrote music and her Quaker pastor husband, Virgil, wrote lyrics for about 500 gospel songs.

      Homer Rodenheaver had a school of music in Winona Lake, Indiana. During the summer of 1936, he invited all faculty members to his home for the evening. Among them were the Brocks. That night, they watched a very unusual sunset with Virgil’s cousin, Horace Burr. A large area of the lake appeared ablaze with the glory of God, yet there were storm clouds gathered overhead. Burr was blind. As they talked about the impressive beauty of that sunset, Burr remarked that he had never seen a more beautiful sunset. He told them, “I see through other people’s eyes, and I think I often see more; I see beyond the sunset.” Blanche later said, “The phrase ‘beyond the sunset’ and the striking inflection of his voice struck me so forcibly, I began singing the first few measures. We then went to the piano and completed the first verse.” Before dinner ended, all four stanzas were complete. The song was dedicated to Horace.

      Iola Whitlock Brubeck

      1923-

      “God’s Love Made Visible”

      Iola Whitlock of Redding California met her husband, Dave Brubeck, while they were students at the College of the Pacific, now named University of the Pacific. She co-directed a weekly campus radio program “The Friday Frolicks” where Dave and his small band occasionally played. After some time, they went on their first date and got engaged that night. They married in 1942 and celebrated their seventieth anniversary on September 20, 2012, shortly before Dave’ death. Iola contributed to Dave’s very successful career by urging him to take his music to colleges and later to any venue within driving distance. She often wrote lyrics for his music, many with religious themes. They gave back to their alma mater by founding the Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific in 2000. The Institute’s mission is to build on Dave Brubeck’s artistic legacy and to advance important social issues such as civil rights, the environment, international relations, and justice.

      Harriet Eugenia ‘Katie’ Peck Buell

      1834-1910

      “A Child of the King”

      Katie, as she was known, lived in Manlius, New York until 1898. She moved to Washington D.C., but kept a summer home in New York. She contributed a number of poems to the Northern Christian Advocate, a Methodist revival magazine, in Syracuse, New York.

      One day in 1876, she attended a rousing Methodist camp meeting. The stirring sermon was based on Romans 8:17: “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God.” Before the now unknown preacher finished, he shouted, “We are the children of a king!” Recalling that night, she wrote, “I felt as if I were walking on air as I left that service and as I walked toward my cottage. The complete set of words had come to me and I entitled them ‘The Child of a King.’” Her text was sent to the Northern Christian Advocate and it was printed in the February 1877 issue. A young pastor, John Sumner, had been praying for a new gospel song to replace one that would have been written by his friend who had died before he could compose it. When he saw Buell’s words in the magazine, he knew his prayer was answered. He composed a tune to fit the poem. Harriett lived humbly. You can hear her life in the very final words of her hymn:

      A tent or a cottage, why should I care?

      They’re building a palace for me over there.

      Though exiled from home, yet still may I sing;

      All glory to God, I’m a child of the King.

      Edith Margaret Clarkson

      1915-2008

      “So Send I You”

      Margaret grew up in Toronto, raised by unhappy parents who divorced when she was beginning her teen years. Her memories of childhood were of fear and insecurity. Throughout her life, she was plagued by the pain of migraine headaches, and often bedridden by juvenile arthritis. But she learned to love church hymns and poetry. She published her first poem when she was ten years old. She earned a teacher’s degree and for thirty-eight years she taught elementary school in Ontario. She also served as the music supervisor of six large schools. She loved writing, and for good reason: she was good at it. Her greatest love was writing hymns. She wrote, “Writing a hymn is more than using certain techniques correctly. It is a matter of looking on the face of God.” Over her life, she published seventeen books, hundreds of poems, articles, songs and sketches. At its 1992 national convention, The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada named her a Fellow of the Society in recognition of her prolific works and contribution to hymnody.

      She wrote her most notable hymn at age twenty-three. She was an isolated teacher in a gold mining camp in northern Ontario. Her isolation was mental, cultural and spiritual. She said, “Studying the word one night and thinking of the loneliness of my situation, I came to John 20:21 and the words ‘so send I you.’ Because of a physical disability, I could never go to the mission field, and this was where He had sent me.” She wrote the first draft of her hymn. Years later, she revised it to reflect greater acceptance and joy over God’s plan for her.

      Elizabeth Cecelia Douglas Clephane

      1830-1869

      “Beneath the Cross of Jesus”