[Since I started on the upward way]

Composer: Mrs. Bessie F. Hatcher

Bessie Frances Simmons Hatcher was apparently an actress who got converted and called to preach. She was a minister in the Pilgrim Holiness Church in the Pennsylvania/New Jersey district, although she did pastor Free Methodist and Wesleyan Methodist congregations at some point. Her most famous songs were "Keep on the Firing Line", "I Would Not Want to Miss It", and "Let Me Burn Out for Thee", in addition to "He Will Not Fail Me Now". She married William Hatcher. She was born March 29 1880 and passed in June 1960 in Ocean County New Jersey. Old newspaper accounts allude to her conversion story, but so far have found no accounts of it. The district journal of 1961 called her "an old warrior of the Cross". James Keeton  Go to person page >