1836 - 1899 Person Name: Frances Laughton Mace Hymnal Number: 886 Author of "Only Waiting" in Hymn and Tune Book of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (Round Note Ed.) Mace, Frances P., née Laughton, was born in Orono, Maine, Jan. 15, 1836, and married in 1855 to Benjamin H. Mace, a Lawyer of Bangor. Her hymn "Only waiting till the shadows" (Heaven Anticipated), was written in 1854, and printed in a local newspaper, the Waterville Mail (Maine), Sep. 7, 1854, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines. It has attained a wide circulation in Great Britain and America. Full text in I. D. Sankey's Sacred Songs & Solos, 1878. See Woman in Sacred Song, 1885, p. 139, for counter-claim on behalf of Mrs. F. A. F. Wood-White.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
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Born: January 15, 1834, Orono, Maine.
Died: July 20, 1899.
Buried: Los Gatos Memorial Park, San Jose, California.
In 1837, Frances’ family moved to Foxcroft (now Dover-Foxcroft), Maine, where she grew up. By age 10, she was studying Latin, and had verses published by age 12. The family later moved to Bangor, Maine, where she graduated from high school, and studied German and music with private teachers. In 1855, she married lawyer Benjamin F. Mace of Bangor; in 1885, they moved to San Jose, California. They had eight children, four of whom reached adulthood. Her works include:
Legends, Lyrics and Sonnets, 1883
Under Pine and Palm, 1888
Sources:
Willard, pp. 482-83
http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/m/a/c/mace_fl.htm
Frances L. Mace