Thomas Dorsey was a blues piano man who later gave his life to gospel music. One hot August day in 1932 he left his pregnant wife Nettie in Chicago to sing at a revival in St. Louis. After he sang, a messenger handed him a Western Union telegram: his wife had died. Back home he learned Nettie had given birth to a boy, but that night the baby died too. He buried them together in the same casket. Dorsey said he didn’t want to serve God anymore or write gospel songs. A few days later a friend took him to a quiet room with a piano, and as his hands moved over the keys, the words came: “Precious Lord, take my hand.” It became the most famous of his songs.
