Gospel Singer/Songwriter. He wrote his first song, "Gladly Sing," when he was 17. He wrote the lyrics to the song 'When The Saints Go Marching In' and he wrote more than 1,000 hymns and gospel songs.



Son of James Thomas & Nancy Brooks Presley; from 1930 until his death he was closely associated with the Stamps-Baxter Music Co. of Dallas and Chattanooga, not only composing hymns but establishing a corporate branch in Pangburn (White County, Arkansas); he thought his best work was "I'd Rather Have Jesus", which he was also proud of "God's Wonderful Book Divine", "Getting Ready to Leave This World", "I'll Have a New Life", and "He Wills It So"; he wrote "The Lord is With Me" after he survived an automobile accident in Heber Springs; his first wife, Julia Magdaline Yingling, died during childbirth in 1922; his family donated a collection of Presley songs, scrapbooks, and hymnals to the University of Central Arkansas Archives. (info from Tom Dillard's article "Marching with the Saints", Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 8/11/13...Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist)

Gospel Singer/Songwriter. He wrote his first song, "Gladly Sing," when he was 17. He wrote the lyrics to the song 'When The Saints Go Marching In' and he wrote more than 1,000 hymns and gospel songs.



Son of James Thomas & Nancy Brooks Presley; from 1930 until his death he was closely associated with the Stamps-Baxter Music Co. of Dallas and Chattanooga, not only composing hymns but establishing a corporate branch in Pangburn (White County, Arkansas); he thought his best work was "I'd Rather Have Jesus", which he was also proud of "God's Wonderful Book Divine", "Getting Ready to Leave This World", "I'll Have a New Life", and "He Wills It So"; he wrote "The Lord is With Me" after he survived an automobile accident in Heber Springs; his first wife, Julia Magdaline Yingling, died during childbirth in 1922; his family donated a collection of Presley songs, scrapbooks, and hymnals to the University of Central Arkansas Archives. (info from Tom Dillard's article "Marching with the Saints", Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 8/11/13...Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist)