Second Verse of 279 The Shepherd's Flock
Fynn Titford-Mock
This little discovery has lain a couple of years in my drafts folder - turns out I never pressed send! Must have forgotten about it after posting on Facebook. Well, here it is:
The identity of the author of verse two of Elmer Kitchens' song The Shepherd's Flock has long remained a mystery (verse one is by Philip Doddridge), but I'm happy to announce a plausible candidate (a short version of this post appeared in the Facebook group Sacred Harp Friends, so I am retelling for the benefit of those who are not involved with Facebook).
The clue lies in a barely legible inscription in a 1936 edition of the Sacred Harp, held in the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University, a copy once owned by a Violet Johnson, according to an inscription by George Pullen Jackson. The book has been digitally scanned by Lawrence Rees, which facilitates this bit of transatlantic research.
On page 279, the handwritten note reads:
J. M. D%mb%%d [misspelt/illegible] wrote the words. He is brother-in-law of Mrs Parker, lives in Parrish, Ala.
This intriguing inscription was brought to my attention by Jonathon Smith via Matthew McLellan, but since none of us could decipher the crucial surname, we thought that might be the end of it. The thought then occurred to me that Mrs Parker could in this context really only apply to Susie Irene Kitchens Parker (later Denson), sister of Elmer Kitchens and composer of 545 The Pilgrim's Way. Then I remembered I had met and sung with Zilpha Kitchens Cornett - a niece of Elmer and Irene - and got a very speedy response and confirmation after asking whether she could shed any light on the name:
John Martin Dombhart (1889-1952) was the second husband of Vera Kitchens (1909-2000) - one of the ten Kitchens siblings, sister of composers Elmer, Irene, and the late Mary. He published a "History of Walker County, Alabama" in 1937.
Of course, one does wonder why the author of the note in the book didn't write that Dombhart was the composer's brother-in-law, but perhaps it wasn't clear to them that Elmer & Irene were siblings.
Fynn Titford-Mock
Wade Kotter
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