HALLELUJAH, WE SHALL RISE

Composer: J. E. Thomas

J. Edmond Thomas Born: De­cem­ber 6, 1860, Cal­houn Coun­ty, Ar­kan­sas. Died: Ap­ril 30, 1946, Fort Worth, Tex­as. Buried: Green­wood Ce­me­te­ry, Fort Worth, Texas. Note: Some sourc­es give his first name as John; his tomb­stone says James. Thomas was the hus­band of Court­ney Lee Wig­ley and Pearl Hat­chett (mar­ried 1923) In 1874, his fa­mi­ly moved from their farm in Tex­as to Ar­kan­sas. His fa­ther died lat­er that year. As the old­est son, he had his hands full sup­port­ing the fa­mi­ly, but he ma­naged to be­gin at­tend­ing a vo­cal school at age 17, un­der Pro­fes­sor T. A. Bridg­es. He lat­er stu­died un­der Ho­ra­tio Pal­mer and George A. Good­rich. He be­gan a full time mu­… Go to person page >