Jesse Randall Baxter

American Southern Gospel composer and publisher. Born December 8, 1887 in DeKalb County, Alabama. Died January 29, 1960 (aged 72) in Dallas, Texas. Baxter composed Gospel songs including "Try Jesus", "Travel the Sunlit Way", "Something Happens (When You Give Your Heart to God)", "I Have Peace in My Soul", "Living Grace", and "I Want to Help Some Weary Pilgrim". In 1926, Baxter bought part of Vir­gil Stamps’ Gos­pel mu­sic firm, which be­came the Stamps-Bax­ter Mu­sic and Print­ing Com­pa­ny (aka Stamps-Baxter Music), one of the most suc­cess­ful Gos­pel mu­sic pub­lish­ers of the ear­ly 20th Century. Bax­ter ran the com­pa­ny’s Chat­ta­noo­ga, Ten­nes­see, of­fice un­til Stamps’ death in 1940, then moved to Dall­as, Tex­as, to run the main of­fice. Baxter's interest in school teaching led him to publish shape-note songbooks and sponsor a Stamps-Baxter School of Music, both of which contributed to the popularity of Gospel music. Bax­ter was in­duct­ed in­to the South­ern Gos­pel Mu­sic As­so­ci­a­tion Hall of Fame in 1997. See also Member Of The Stamps-Baxter School Of Music.