Frances Jane Crosby

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.