Lucie E. Campbell [–Williams]

30 April 1885—3 January 1963

[Lucie married C.R. Williams in 1960]

Lucie E. Campbell, in Soul-Stirring Songs for All Religious Occasions (1947), signed. Image courtesy of the Archives of African American Music and Culture, Indiana University. — **Lucie E. Campbell,** in *Soul-Stirring Songs for All Religious Occasions* (1947), signed. Image courtesy of the Archives of African American Music and Culture, Indiana University.

On Nov. 21, J. Robert Bradley and the writer went to see our mutual friend, MRS. LUCIE CAMPBELL WILLIAMS, at her home in Nashville, Tenn. She was physically weak but spiritually strong and mentally alert. She felt like talking that day, so we tried to acquaint Mr. Bradley with some of the historical facts about the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. It was an inspiration to listen to the retrospective promulgations of this sainted veteran of the Christian faith.

Lucie E. Campbell was one of the most versatile leaders in the country; she was a song writer, a singer, played the piano and wrote a variety of sacred songs. She wrote several anthems for Easter and Christmas exercises, included among them were versions of The Lord’s Prayer and the Twenty-third Psalm, “The Lord Is My Shepherd.” One of her very first songs to gain nationwide popularity was “Heavenly Sunshine.” Then followed a long list of songs which stirred the souls of church folk around the country. “Something Within,” “Just to Behold His Face,” “Footprints of Jesus,” “Touch Me, Lord Jesus,” and “In the Upper Room with Jesus.” The writer is so familiar with her songs and poems that I could use hundreds of lines in her behalf.

Miss Campbell was music director of the National Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress and a retired high school teacher in the public school system of Memphis, Tenn. No person who has passed off the active stage in the past 40 years will be more keenly missed than Lucie Campbell Williams. She will be missed as a congenial worker, a cooperative leader, teacher, and adviser. She will be missed as an example of true womanhood. She will be missed because of the contribution she made in all phases of the work of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc.

Her funeral was conducted by Dr. J.H. Jackson, president of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. Lucie Campbell Williams will be missed as a wife; she could be seen with her outstanding husband, Dr. C.R. Williams, at every board meeting, at every session of the National Baptist Convention. The sweet singer, artistic pianist, the convincing teacher and righteous influence was called home on Jan. 3., but she will long be remembered by what she has done.

by B.H. Logan
The Courier (Pittsburgh, PA), 19 Jan. 1963

Featured Hymns:

Something Within

Published Works (Selected):

For a list of individual songs in chronological order, see Boyer (1992), p. 83.

Gospel Pearls (1921)

Inspirational Melodies (1925)

Spirituals Triumphant Old and New

1st Ed. (1926)
Rev. & Enl. (1927)

Inspirational Melodies No. 2 (1929)

Lucie E. Campbell’s Soul-Stirring Songs for All Religious Occasions (1947, enlarged 1952): WorldCat

see also:

Lucie E. Campbell, A Study of the Causes of Withdrawals of Booker T. Washington High School of Memphis, Tennessee, M.S. Thesis (Nashville: Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College, 1951): WorldCat

Archives & Manuscripts:

Luvenia A. George Collection, Archives of African American Music and Culture, Indiana University:
http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/findingaids/view?doc.view=entire_text&docId=VAC1952

African American Sheet Music Collection, Stuart A. Rose Archives, Emory University:
http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/8xx0x

Center for Southern Folklore, Memphis:
https://www.southernfolklore.com/archives

Archive Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/

Life & Works:

William M. Washington, Miss Lucie Speaks: Addresses of Miss Lucie E. Campbell (Nashville: Sunday School Publishing Board, 1971): WorldCat

Robert J. Bradley, “Miss Lucy: The legacy of the woman and her music,” National Baptist Voice (April 1979–1980), pp. 30–31.

Eileen Southern, “Lucie Eddie Campbell,” Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982), pp. 62–63.

Niani Kilkenny & Rebecca E. Curzon, The Songs of Lucie E. Campbell: Gospel Music Composer (Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1984).

Luvenia A. George and Ada Gilkey, “Lucie E. Campbell: Baptist Composer and Educator,” The Black Perspective in Music, vol. 15, no. 1 (1987), pp. 25–49: JSTOR

Horace Clarence Boyer, “Lucie E. Campbell: Composer for the National Baptist Convention,” We’ll Understand It Better By and By (Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1992), pp. 81–108.

Luvenia A. George, “Lucie E. Campbell: Her nurturing and expansion of gospel music in the National Baptist Convention,” We’ll Understand It Better By and By (Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1992), pp. 109–119.

Rev. Charles Walker, “Lucie E. Campbell Williams: A cultural biography,” We’ll Understand It Better By and By (Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1992), pp. 121–138.

Jon Michael Spencer, “The National Baptists,” Black Hymnody: A Hymnological History of the African-American Church (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992), pp. 74–100.

Charles Walker, Miss Lucie (Nashville: Townsend Press, 1993): WorldCat

Judith Weisenfeld & Richard Newman, This Far By Faith: Readings in African-American Women’s Religious Biography (New York: Routledge, 1996), pp. 56–72: WorldCat

Roxanne Regina Reed, Preaching and Piety: The Politics of Women’s Voice in African-American Gospel Music with Special Attention to Gospel Music Pioneer Lucie E. Campbell, dissertation (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 2003): WorldCat

Alisha Lola Jones, “Something Within: Tracing a womanist legacy of self-possession and musical sisterhood in the life of gospel foremother Lucie E. Campbell,” Lord, Don’t Move the Mountain, Pruitt Memorial Symposium (Waco, TX: Baylor, 2 March 2021): YouTube