The State of Tennessee pretty much has but one Christmas carol that sprang out of Appalachia. Beautiful Star of Bethlehem was written by R. Fisher Boyce around 1938 near the Central Tennessee community of Link. Boyce had 11 children and said the only time he could really concentrate and write music with all the commotion going on in his house was when he went out and milked the cow in the barn. Among many other songs, this is how Beautiful Star came into being. Boyce sold the song for a one-time fee to the Vaughan Publishing Company where Adger M. Pace arranged it for the Vaughan Radio Quartet, which is why Pace is often given credit (wrongly) for writing the song.
Don Brandon (researcher)
Born: August 13, 1882, Pelzer, South Carolina.
Died: February 12, 1959, Lawrence County Hospital, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.
Buried: Dunn Methodist Church Cemetery, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.
Pseudonyms: Millard A. Glenn; Charles H. Huff; Audalene Mayfield; Fay Wallington.
Born August 13, 1882 near Pelzer, South Carolina, Adger M. Pace soon gained a love and appreciation for music that characterized the remainder of his life.
He sang bass for seventeen years as a member of the Vaughan Radio Quartet, singing over WOAN--one of the South's first radio stations. He was also active in singing conventions, serving as one of the organizers and the first president of the National Singing Convention in 1937.
Pace's most significant cont… Go to person page >
My Starred Hymns
My FlexScores
My Hymnals
My Purchased Files