Fanny Crosby

Take fifteen hymnals and stack them one on top of another. Taken all together, that's about the number of hymns Fanny Crosby wrote in her lifetime! Of course, many of those have been forgotten today, but a large number remain favorites of Christians all over the world.

Francis Jane Crosby was born into a family of strong Puritan ancestry in New York on March 24, 1820. As a baby, she had an eye infection which a quack doctor treated by placing hot poultices on her red and inflamed eyelids. The infection did clear up, but scars formed on the eyes, and the baby girl became blind for life. A few months later, Fanny's dad became ill and died. Mercy Crosby, widowed at 21, hired herself out as a maid while Grandmother Eunice Crosby took care of little Fanny.

She wrote "Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross" on November 20, 1850 at Thirtieth Street Methodist Church in Cincinnati. Businessman William Doane gave her a melody he had written. Fanny, listening to it, felt it said, ?Jesus keep me near the cross,? and she promptly wrote the words.

This is my Concert (Pedal) Harp arrangement of their work, with added introduction measures, ornamentation, and prepared for the Sierra Vista United Methodist Church (SVUMC).