Fanny Crosby

Today is the day we remember Fanny Crosby one of the most prolific hymnists in history. (March 24 1820 – February 12 1915)

Her hymns include this old favorite "Blessed Assurance" sung here by Alan Jackson. Fanny was blind, and as with many people who lose one sense, other senses sharpened including her sense of hearing and internal vision. When she died, her tombstone carried the words, "Aunt Fanny" and "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine." (More about Fanny can be found at

http://satucket.com/lectionary/fanny_crosby.htm​.

I had an Aunt Fanny. She lived about the same time, and she too was blind. A saying in my family is, "Aunt Fanny, remarkable woman, blind from birth."

Aunt Fanny figures into my story because her married name was Frances Moorman Owen [from Owensboro, Kentucky]. Because she and Mr. Owen never had any children, Aunt Fanny's sister, Maria Moorman Phillips, my great great grandmother, named her first girl after Aunt Fanny. Maria feminized the name Owen by adding an "e," and thus the name Owene was born.

Now I am certain this is more information than anyone out there needed, but it just came to mind today, and I thought I'd share.

Below is a picture of Aunt Fanny, one of my great grandmother, the first Owene, Frances Owene Phillips and one of Fanny Crosby.

Thanks for listening and Blessed Assurance, Jesus is ours!