While I was waiting for my students to show up, Garrison Keillor told me that Fanny Crosby was born this day, 1820. I was pleased to hear this.
I’ve been a secret admirer of Mrs. Crosby for several years. A distant one, for I have not tried to get to know her at all, but every time I see her name on the page, I feel like I’m with an old friend. It seems every other day that we sing one of her hymns.
Mr. Keillor said she wrote thousands of them. I was impressed. He said she used several pen names. I was interested. He also said she was blind. I was intrigued. I imagine her as a quiet type, with a roving, soaring spirit. But maybe she was just a stolid old blind woman who was always writing. Maybe not.
I don’t know Fanny Crosby, and never will. But I do know that Fanny Crosby wrote things that I love to hear. And that is good enough for me. Fanny Crosby is now one of my heroes.
Happy Birthday, Fanny.
3 comments:
Keillor always knows the best stuff and says it in the best way
go fanny. it's yo birthday.
i don't think i would ever name a child fanny...
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