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December 30, 2024 12 mins

For our series "An Army of Normal Dead Folks", Larry Reed tells the story of Fanny Crosby, who became blind and yet still holds the records for the most number of songs written & most number of Presidents met. 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From the age of six months. As a baby, she
was blinded in both eyes. She never saw anything. And
you know, during her lifetime, so many people would say,
even after she became so famous for the hymns she
was writing, they would say things like, oh, miss Crosby,
so sorry for your handicap. It must be awful to

(00:21):
have dealt with this for so long, things like that
that people would naturally say, And her response every time
was the most optimistic, uplifting thing you can imagine. She
would say, thank you. But I've often wondered how much
I might have missed if God had given me the

(00:42):
gift of sight.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach an
inner city Memphis. And the last part led to an
oscar for the movie about our team. That film was
called Undefeated. Guys, I believe our country's problems will never

(01:10):
be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice
suits using big words that nobody ever uses on CNN
and Box, but rather by an army of normal folks. Guys,
that's us, just you and me deciding, hey, you know what,
maybe I can help. That's exactly what Fanny Crosby did.

(01:30):
And today, along with Larry Reid, the author of Real Heroes,
we pay tribute to her as part of our special
series An Army of Normal Dead Folks. I cannot wait
for you to meet Fanny Crosby. Right after these brief messages.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
From our general sponsors.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Skipping into chapter sixteen, this one was really interesting to me.
Fanny Crosby.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Oh yes, my gosh. You know, I love talking about
Fanny Crosby on the lecture circuit. And when I do that,
I start out by saying something like, how many presidents
do you think the record holder met? A person who
met more American presidents than any other living or did

(02:29):
man or woman in American history.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
If you'd have said that, I would have said, either
a general who may be a worked for him, or
possibly a journalist like maybe Walter Concride or something like that.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
That's my guess, yep. And even then if you said
five presidents that they met, that would be extraordinary.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Five would be extraordinary because that's at least thirty years count,
you know. To Yeah, and just to have been alive
and active long enough to meet thirty presidents or be extraordinary.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, Fanny Crosby lived to the age of ninety five.
She was born in eighteen twenty died in nineteen fifteen.
But she met twenty one American presidents.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
I mean that's fine, almost.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Half of all the people who served in that office. Now,
some of them she met after they were president, like
John Quincy Adams. He was president in the eighteen twenties,
and he later served for seventeen years in the US
House as a representative from Massachusetts, so he was an
old man and a former president when he met Fanny Crosby,

(03:34):
but still to meet every president from John Quincy Adams
through and including Woodrow Wilson twenty one. Raises the question, well,
why was she given such access? What was it about
her that so many presidents wanted to know more or
wanted to meet her? Well, she had done some remarkable
things in New York City during a cholera epidemic in

(03:57):
the eighteen forties, when thousands left the she stayed behind
and ministered and nursed the sick, contracted cholera herself but recovered.
That would have earned her at least a footnote in
New York City history. She also was the first woman
to address the United States Congress, so that suggests, wow,
she must have done something else rather famous. It turns

(04:20):
out she still holds the record for having written the
lyrics to more songs than any other man or woman
living or dead, some three thousand hymns, nine thousand hymns,
and most Americans.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Sam Harold, and you for writing this book in a
year not fous exactly.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, Well, she wrote nine thousand hymns, and many of
them are being sung to this day. You have heard,
I'm sure to God be the glory, blessed assurance. Those
are Fanny Crosby hymns, but still haven't told you them.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
I'm going to be in church thumbing through hymn noments
Sunday because my church hymnal at the top right hand
corner has the composer of the hymnals. Right, I'm gonna
be looking for Crosby. F Crosby, F Crosby.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
You'll see, I think you will. But the most remarkable
thing about her is that Fanny Crosby never had any
memory of having seen anything. And I say that because
from the age of six months as a baby, she
was blinded in both eyes from a botched operation. She

(05:38):
never saw anything. And you know, during her lifetime, so
many people would say, even after she became so famous
for the hymns she was writing, they would say things like, oh,
miss Crosby, so sorry for your handicap. It must be
awful to have dealt with this for so long, things
like that that people would naturally say, And her response

(05:59):
every time was the most optimistic, uplifting thing you can imagine.
She would say, thank you, but I've often wondered how
much I might have missed if God had given me
the gift of sight. In other words, she made the
best of a bad situation. She counted her blessings, not

(06:22):
the other guys, in spite of this horrific handicap, and
she made the best of a wonderful life. And when
she talked to Congress first woman to do so, her
message was not, Oh, I have a handicap, where's my check?
Her message was we are all called, regardless of our circumstances,
to do whatever we can to inspire others and do

(06:45):
what's right. And that's why when she died at the
age of ninety five. In nineteen fifteen, she was widely
regarded as the most revered, most beloved woman in the
United States.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
She was blind, Yeah, and stayed back in the city
of New York to nurse the sick. Yeah, she was blind.
How to even do that?

Speaker 1 (07:12):
I don't know how. She even taught for a time
at the New York Institution for the Blind. She was
a teacher of the blind as well as being blind herself.
That's how. By the way, one of the twenty one
presidents she met, she met him. Well, he taught, not
yet a president. Well, he taught at the New York
Institution for the Blind, and that was Grover Cleveland.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
That's unbelievable. I also think about nine thousand hymns, she
didn't write the words, she wrote scale yeah, yeah, yeah,
How in the world does a blind person write nine
thousand hymns to musical scale?

Speaker 1 (07:48):
Well, it's often been said that when she noted this
as well, that when someone loses one of their senses,
one or another sense or ability is magnified, and in
Fanny's case, it seems that she developed an incredible memory.
Biographers have written about how there was one instance where

(08:11):
a music company had the music to about forty songs,
but they didn't have the lyrics, and they commissioned her
to write the lyrics to these forty pieces of music.
She never wrote anything down. She wrote them in her head,
went to the music place and just recited those words

(08:33):
from memory, just having heard the music. She wrote the
words in her head, I mean, and memorized them.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
That's phenomenal, unbelievable. Yeah, and she came from meager beginnings
of believe.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Oh, she sure did, and never lived in any lavish way,
even after nine thousand hymns. She was never a wealthy
person in the nineteen teams. See she was ninety when
this happens, so it must have been about nineteen ten.
She performed at age ninety at Carnegie Hall in New

(09:11):
York City to a packed house. They sang Fanny Crosby
Hens with her on the stage for thirty minutes, and
she spoke. And there are just many stories of people
who in New York City over the years would give
her a carriage ride. She would get into carriage to
go someplace and then the driver would realize who it

(09:31):
was and break down in tears. Amazing, just because she
was such an inspiration she'd never let her handicap be
anything but a reason to be inspired.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
And if a blond woman can do all of that,
what possibilities await any of us who just want to
get involved in is something positive?

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah? Yeah, absolutely, what an example. We have so few
excuses to make about handicaps we may face when you
learn what Fanny Crosby did in the face of hers.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
And thank you for joining us for this special series.
An army of normal dead folks.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
You're gonna laugh every time. I can't.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
It's funny. I just it's it's so irreverent and horribly
horribly funny, an army of normal debt to respect the dad.
That's not my intention, though, well I know it's no disrespect,
but it is irreverent. But it's funny. And you know
what it is. They're dead folks and they're normal. If
they were alive, we would try to get them on

(10:37):
the show. And since we can't and they're dead, but
they're an army of normal folks. We're highlighting them. So
why aren't they an army? And I don't know why
I find it so humorous, do you know?

Speaker 3 (10:48):
I hope everybody else?

Speaker 2 (10:52):
All right? Well, anyway, thanks for joining us for the
special series An Army of Normal Dead Foes.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
You didn't have to repeat it.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
I can't help it.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
I really, I'll just ring the bell the top it off.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
Here we go.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Oh, you know what clarent says when a bell rings,
somebody gets their wings. It's a wonderful life. That's appropriate
for dead folks.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Army.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
All right, where are we? Oh? If Fanny Crosby or
any episodes have inspired you in general, or better yet,
by taking action by making your own stand in our
time buying Larry Reid's book Real Heroes where the story
came from, or if you have story ideas for this series,

(11:35):
meaning if you know of someone who's dead who if
they were alive, we would want to put on the show. Well,
that's what we're looking for.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
You rerely had to spell that os for fun.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Well, yeah, I mean dead people. That's what we're looking
for on this one. Please let me know I'd love
to hear about it. You can write me anytime at
Bill at normal Folks dot us, and I promise I
will respond and enjoyed this episode, share it with friends
and on social Subscribe to the podcast, y'all subscribe to
the podcast, Please rate it, review it. Join the army

(12:10):
at normalfolks dot us. Consider becoming a premium member. There
any and all of these things that will help us
grow an army of normal folks. Thanks to our producer,
Iron Light Labs, I'm Bill Courtney. Alex is sitting on
my left until next time.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
Do what you can
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Bill Courtney

Bill Courtney

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