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Speaker 1: From the age of six months. As a baby, she

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Speaker 1: was blinded in both eyes. She never saw anything. And

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Speaker 1: you know, during her lifetime, so many people would say,

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Speaker 1: even after she became so famous for the hymns she

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Speaker 1: was writing, they would say things like, oh, miss Crosby,

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Speaker 1: so sorry for your handicap. It must be awful to

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Speaker 1: have dealt with this for so long, things like that

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Speaker 1: that people would naturally say, And her response every time

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Speaker 1: was the most optimistic, uplifting thing you can imagine. She

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Speaker 1: would say, thank you. But I've often wondered how much

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Speaker 1: I might have missed if God had given me the

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Speaker 1: gift of sight.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

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Speaker 2: I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,

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Speaker 2: I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach an

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Speaker 2: inner city Memphis. And the last part led to an

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Speaker 2: oscar for the movie about our team. That film was

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Speaker 2: called Undefeated. Guys, I believe our country's problems will never

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Speaker 2: be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice

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Speaker 2: suits using big words that nobody ever uses on CNN

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Speaker 2: and Box, but rather by an army of normal folks. Guys,

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Speaker 2: that's us, just you and me deciding, hey, you know what,

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Speaker 2: maybe I can help. That's exactly what Fanny Crosby did.

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Speaker 2: And today, along with Larry Reid, the author of Real Heroes,

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Speaker 2: we pay tribute to her as part of our special

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Speaker 2: series An Army of Normal Dead Folks. I cannot wait

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Speaker 2: for you to meet Fanny Crosby. Right after these brief messages.

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Speaker 3: From our general sponsors.

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Speaker 2: Skipping into chapter sixteen, this one was really interesting to me.

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Speaker 2: Fanny Crosby.

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Speaker 1: Oh yes, my gosh. You know, I love talking about

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Speaker 1: Fanny Crosby on the lecture circuit. And when I do that,

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Speaker 1: I start out by saying something like, how many presidents

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Speaker 1: do you think the record holder met? A person who

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Speaker 1: met more American presidents than any other living or did

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Speaker 1: man or woman in American history.

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Speaker 2: If you'd have said that, I would have said, either

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Speaker 2: a general who may be a worked for him, or

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Speaker 2: possibly a journalist like maybe Walter Concride or something like that.

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Speaker 1: That's my guess, yep. And even then if you said

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Speaker 1: five presidents that they met, that would be extraordinary.

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Speaker 2: Five would be extraordinary because that's at least thirty years count,

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Speaker 2: you know. To Yeah, and just to have been alive

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Speaker 2: and active long enough to meet thirty presidents or be extraordinary.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, Fanny Crosby lived to the age of ninety five.

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Speaker 1: She was born in eighteen twenty died in nineteen fifteen.

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Speaker 1: But she met twenty one American presidents.

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Speaker 2: I mean that's fine, almost.

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Speaker 1: Half of all the people who served in that office. Now,

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Speaker 1: some of them she met after they were president, like

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Speaker 1: John Quincy Adams. He was president in the eighteen twenties,

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Speaker 1: and he later served for seventeen years in the US

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Speaker 1: House as a representative from Massachusetts, so he was an

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Speaker 1: old man and a former president when he met Fanny Crosby,

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Speaker 1: but still to meet every president from John Quincy Adams

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Speaker 1: through and including Woodrow Wilson twenty one. Raises the question, well,

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Speaker 1: why was she given such access? What was it about

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Speaker 1: her that so many presidents wanted to know more or

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Speaker 1: wanted to meet her? Well, she had done some remarkable

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Speaker 1: things in New York City during a cholera epidemic in

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Speaker 1: the eighteen forties, when thousands left the she stayed behind

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Speaker 1: and ministered and nursed the sick, contracted cholera herself but recovered.

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Speaker 1: That would have earned her at least a footnote in

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Speaker 1: New York City history. She also was the first woman

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Speaker 1: to address the United States Congress, so that suggests, wow,

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Speaker 1: she must have done something else rather famous. It turns

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Speaker 1: out she still holds the record for having written the

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Speaker 1: lyrics to more songs than any other man or woman

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Speaker 1: living or dead, some three thousand hymns, nine thousand hymns,

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Speaker 1: and most Americans.

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Speaker 2: Sam Harold, and you for writing this book in a

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Speaker 2: year not fous exactly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, she wrote nine thousand hymns, and many of

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Speaker 1: them are being sung to this day. You have heard,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure to God be the glory, blessed assurance. Those

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Speaker 1: are Fanny Crosby hymns, but still haven't told you them.

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Speaker 2: I'm going to be in church thumbing through hymn noments

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Speaker 2: Sunday because my church hymnal at the top right hand

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Speaker 2: corner has the composer of the hymnals. Right, I'm gonna

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Speaker 2: be looking for Crosby. F Crosby, F Crosby.

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Speaker 1: You'll see, I think you will. But the most remarkable

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Speaker 1: thing about her is that Fanny Crosby never had any

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Speaker 1: memory of having seen anything. And I say that because

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Speaker 1: from the age of six months as a baby, she

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Speaker 1: was blinded in both eyes from a botched operation. She

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Speaker 1: never saw anything. And you know, during her lifetime, so

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Speaker 1: many people would say, even after she became so famous

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Speaker 1: for the hymns she was writing, they would say things like, oh,

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Speaker 1: miss Crosby, so sorry for your handicap. It must be

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Speaker 1: awful to have dealt with this for so long, things

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Speaker 1: like that that people would naturally say, And her response

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Speaker 1: every time was the most optimistic, uplifting thing you can imagine.

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Speaker 1: She would say, thank you, but I've often wondered how

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Speaker 1: much I might have missed if God had given me

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Speaker 1: the gift of sight. In other words, she made the

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Speaker 1: best of a bad situation. She counted her blessings, not

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Speaker 1: the other guys, in spite of this horrific handicap, and

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Speaker 1: she made the best of a wonderful life. And when

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Speaker 1: she talked to Congress first woman to do so, her

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Speaker 1: message was not, Oh, I have a handicap, where's my check?

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Speaker 1: Her message was we are all called, regardless of our circumstances,

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Speaker 1: to do whatever we can to inspire others and do

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Speaker 1: what's right. And that's why when she died at the

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Speaker 1: age of ninety five. In nineteen fifteen, she was widely

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Speaker 1: regarded as the most revered, most beloved woman in the

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Speaker 1: United States.

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Speaker 2: She was blind, Yeah, and stayed back in the city

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Speaker 2: of New York to nurse the sick. Yeah, she was blind.

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Speaker 2: How to even do that?

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Speaker 1: I don't know how. She even taught for a time

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Speaker 1: at the New York Institution for the Blind. She was

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Speaker 1: a teacher of the blind as well as being blind herself.

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Speaker 1: That's how. By the way, one of the twenty one

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Speaker 1: presidents she met, she met him. Well, he taught, not

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Speaker 1: yet a president. Well, he taught at the New York

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Speaker 1: Institution for the Blind, and that was Grover Cleveland.

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Speaker 2: That's unbelievable. I also think about nine thousand hymns, she

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Speaker 2: didn't write the words, she wrote scale yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 2: How in the world does a blind person write nine

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Speaker 2: thousand hymns to musical scale?

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Speaker 1: Well, it's often been said that when she noted this

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Speaker 1: as well, that when someone loses one of their senses,

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Speaker 1: one or another sense or ability is magnified, and in

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Speaker 1: Fanny's case, it seems that she developed an incredible memory.

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Speaker 1: Biographers have written about how there was one instance where

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Speaker 1: a music company had the music to about forty songs,

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Speaker 1: but they didn't have the lyrics, and they commissioned her

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Speaker 1: to write the lyrics to these forty pieces of music.

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Speaker 1: She never wrote anything down. She wrote them in her head,

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Speaker 1: went to the music place and just recited those words

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Speaker 1: from memory, just having heard the music. She wrote the

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Speaker 1: words in her head, I mean, and memorized them.

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Speaker 2: That's phenomenal, unbelievable. Yeah, and she came from meager beginnings

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Speaker 2: of believe.

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Speaker 1: Oh, she sure did, and never lived in any lavish way,

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Speaker 1: even after nine thousand hymns. She was never a wealthy

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Speaker 1: person in the nineteen teams. See she was ninety when

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Speaker 1: this happens, so it must have been about nineteen ten.

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Speaker 1: She performed at age ninety at Carnegie Hall in New

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Speaker 1: York City to a packed house. They sang Fanny Crosby

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Speaker 1: Hens with her on the stage for thirty minutes, and

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Speaker 1: she spoke. And there are just many stories of people

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Speaker 1: who in New York City over the years would give

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Speaker 1: her a carriage ride. She would get into carriage to

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Speaker 1: go someplace and then the driver would realize who it

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Speaker 1: was and break down in tears. Amazing, just because she

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Speaker 1: was such an inspiration she'd never let her handicap be

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Speaker 1: anything but a reason to be inspired.

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Speaker 2: And if a blond woman can do all of that,

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Speaker 2: what possibilities await any of us who just want to

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Speaker 2: get involved in is something positive?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, absolutely, what an example. We have so few

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Speaker 1: excuses to make about handicaps we may face when you

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Speaker 1: learn what Fanny Crosby did in the face of hers.

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Speaker 2: And thank you for joining us for this special series.

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Speaker 2: An army of normal dead folks.

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Speaker 3: You're gonna laugh every time. I can't.

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Speaker 2: It's funny. I just it's it's so irreverent and horribly

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Speaker 2: horribly funny, an army of normal debt to respect the dad.

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Speaker 2: That's not my intention, though, well I know it's no disrespect,

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Speaker 2: but it is irreverent. But it's funny. And you know

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Speaker 2: what it is. They're dead folks and they're normal. If

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Speaker 2: they were alive, we would try to get them on

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Speaker 2: the show. And since we can't and they're dead, but

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Speaker 2: they're an army of normal folks. We're highlighting them. So

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Speaker 2: why aren't they an army? And I don't know why

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Speaker 2: I find it so humorous, do you know?

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Speaker 3: I hope everybody else?

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Speaker 2: All right? Well, anyway, thanks for joining us for the

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Speaker 2: special series An Army of Normal Dead Foes.

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Speaker 3: You didn't have to repeat it.

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Speaker 2: I can't help it.

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Speaker 3: I really, I'll just ring the bell the top it off.

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Speaker 2: That's it.

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Speaker 3: Here we go.

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Speaker 2: Oh, you know what clarent says when a bell rings,

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Speaker 2: somebody gets their wings. It's a wonderful life. That's appropriate

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Speaker 2: for dead folks.

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Speaker 3: Army.

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Speaker 2: All right, where are we? Oh? If Fanny Crosby or

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Speaker 2: any episodes have inspired you in general, or better yet,

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Speaker 2: by taking action by making your own stand in our

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Speaker 2: time buying Larry Reid's book Real Heroes where the story

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Speaker 2: came from, or if you have story ideas for this series,

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Speaker 2: meaning if you know of someone who's dead who if

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Speaker 2: they were alive, we would want to put on the show. Well,

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Speaker 2: that's what we're looking for.

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Speaker 3: You rerely had to spell that os for fun.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I mean dead people. That's what we're looking

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Speaker 2: for on this one. Please let me know I'd love

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Speaker 2: to hear about it. You can write me anytime at

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Speaker 2: Bill at normal Folks dot us, and I promise I

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Speaker 2: will respond and enjoyed this episode, share it with friends

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Speaker 2: and on social Subscribe to the podcast, y'all subscribe to

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Speaker 2: the podcast, Please rate it, review it. Join the army

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Speaker 2: at normalfolks dot us. Consider becoming a premium member. There

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Speaker 2: any and all of these things that will help us

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Speaker 2: grow an army of normal folks. Thanks to our producer,

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Speaker 2: Iron Light Labs, I'm Bill Courtney. Alex is sitting on

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Speaker 2: my left until next time.

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Speaker 3: Do what you can