By CAROLYN NEWMAN Francis Jane Crosby March 24, 1820-February 12, 1915 Are you aware that Bing Crosby had a famous ancestor, Francis Jane Crosby? Born in 1820, and known as Aunt Fanny, she wrote more than 9,000 hymns, some of which are among the most popular in every Christian denomination. She wrote so many that she was forced to use
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By CAROLYN NEWMAN I’ve been thinking and I’ve been told Everyone you meet could be carryin’ a heavy load. So with a handshake, a hug or a smile We can lighten someone’s load for a little while. People in line at stores decked with holly, Looking sad and impatient—’Tis the season to be jolly? All of this rush and this
Read more“Dr. Virginia (Boyd) Connally” Lyrics by Carolyn Newman sung to “Thanks for the Memories” (With apologies to Bob Hope) Thanks for the Memories In 1912, you were born, On a fourth of December morn, Ada Virginia Hawkins, a Temple, Texas, newborn. We thank God so much! Thanks for the Memories In 1912 the news was gigantic About the sinking Titanic,
Read more(Editor’s Note: Carolyn Newman wrote this column, “Father’s Day and Foregiveness,” in 2006 and recently updated it for Spirit of Abilene.) By CAROLYN NEWMAN “I have returned to the God of my Father, the most God-like man a child could know.” Those are lyrics from Marijohn Wilkin”s “I Have Returned.” Before singing it at church, I asked, “Is that a
Read more(Editor’s Note: Carolyn Newman is a retired public school music specialist who spent much of her career at Dyess Elementary School. She also writes “po’try,” as she calls it, thinking that her work doesn’t rise to the level of poetry. But it is certainly entertaining. Newman has sung her “Ode to Retirment” for the AISD retired teachers’ luncheon and the
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