by Wayne S. Walker<\/p>\n
Paul H. Epps was born on Mar. 20, 1914, in Booneville, Arkansas. Living in Muskogee, Oklahoma, from 1923 to 1945, he attended West Texas University in Canyon, Texas. His interest in music goes back to his early life when he studied rudiments and harmony in summer singing schools. Also, he graduated from the Hartford School of Music in Arkansas. In addition, he studied voice under W. W. Combs and began teaching singing himself in 1934. In 1937, he married Josephine Rachel Osburn of Muskogee, and they had three sons, Barry, Robert, and Joel. His baptism into Christ took place in November of 1942 at Muskogee.<\/p>\n
In 1945, Epps began full-time song-leading work in Waxahachie, Texas. Also that year, he became associated with music normals, including Lloyd Otis Sanderson. For nine years, he labored as a song director with three congregations in Texas, after which he served as a local minister with churches in Texas, at Tenth and Bell in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and Enterprise Boulevard in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Having led singing in numerous gospel meetings alongside many well-known gospel preachers, he taught hundreds of singing schools in various churches and music camps, including the Camp Hensel Music School in Travis Peak, Texas, for over 25 years, as well as the Haskell, Texas, singing school for thirty years.<\/p>\n
Epps was the author and composer of over twenty songs. “Jesus Knows and Cares” was one of his first published hymns. Written in 1961 and copyrighted by the Firm Foundation Publishing House, it appeared in Christian Hymns No. 3, compiled for the Gospel Advocate Co. in 1966 by Sanderson. When asked what prompted the theme of the song, Epps replied, “I was just thinking about the Lord ‘knowing’ and ‘loving’ us, and how deeply He cares for us….It’s just a short step from that concept to the poetic, ‘Jesus knows, Jesus cares.'” Since then, this song has appeared in many books published for use among churches of Christ, including the 1971 Songs of the Church<\/em> edited by Alton H. Howard, the 1978\/1983 Church Gospel Songs and Hymns<\/em> edited by V. E. Howard, the 1978 Hymns of Praise edited by Reuel Lemmons, the 1986 Hymns for Worship<\/em> edited by Shepard and Stevens, and the 1992 Praise for the Lord<\/em> edited by John P. Wiegand.<\/p>\n From 1964 to 1967, Epps served as a minister at the Northside Church in Temple, Texas, and later returned to labor with that church from 1982 to 1988. Another of his songs, “God’s Mercy and Grace,” written in 1971, is also found in several hymnbooks. After living in Temple for nineteen years, he and his wife moved to Lewisville, Texas, in 2001. His death at the age of 88 occurred on June 14, 2002, in a Dallas, Texas, nursing center.\u00a0A couple of other songs by Epps, which appear in the 1999\u00a0Into Our Hands,<\/em> edited by Leland R. Fleming, include “I’ll Keep Traveling the Glory Road,” copyrighted in 1936 by Hartford Music Co., and “Jesus My Friend,” written in 1980 with his son Barry.\u00a0Another collaboration of father and son was “Strength Through Adversity” in 1976.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Wayne S. Walker Paul H. Epps was born on Mar. 20, 1914, in Booneville, Arkansas. Living in Muskogee, Oklahoma, from 1923 to 1945, he attended West Texas University in Canyon, Texas. His interest in music goes back to his early life when he studied rudiments and harmony in summer singing schools. Also, he graduated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[520,521],"class_list":["post-86709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-music","tag-songs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55347,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-bit-of-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":86709,"position":0},"title":"A Bit of History","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant While looking through an old paperback songbook, I found a page written by Austin Taylor, a song leader who often traveled with my grandfather (J. D. Tant) and other gospel preachers to lead singing during gospel meetings. He mentioned the favorite songs of several preachers. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84737,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/songs-of-the-saints-barton-w-stone-and-alexander-campbell\/","url_meta":{"origin":86709,"position":1},"title":"Songs of the Saints: Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker Anyone who has studied and is familiar with the history of the call for religious reformation and restoration in the early 1800s of this nation will certainly recognize these two names. Barton Warren Stone was born on December 24, 1772, near Port Tobacco in Charles County,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23026,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/theres-a-lesson-in-that\/","url_meta":{"origin":86709,"position":2},"title":"There’s a Lesson in That …","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Patrick Andrews Two weeks ago, at the request of a friend, I wrote a poem about Beulah Land. Someone commented on that poem recently and after I finished reading the comment, I listened again to the song that I had copied to my post. This song was written over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/piano-300x169.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14963,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-playing-an-instrument-for-a-persons-own-enjoyment-scriptural\/","url_meta":{"origin":86709,"position":3},"title":"Is playing an instrument for a person’s own enjoyment scriptural?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is playing an instrument for a person's own enjoyment scriptural? For example, can I play the guitar and piano, and write my own songs -- not in worship to God, but for my own enjoyment? I feel somewhat at odds because I think about how we are to give\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59338,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-review-of-the-hymnbooks\/","url_meta":{"origin":86709,"position":4},"title":"A Review of the Hymnbooks","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker Originally published in Torch, October 1988 Please understand that my review is of necessity going to be biased by my own view of what constitutes a good hymn selection. With that in mind, I shall begin by saying that I grew up using the old \"brown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31154,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-grandson-wants-to-learn-to-lead-singing-what-do-you-suggest\/","url_meta":{"origin":86709,"position":5},"title":"My grandson wants to learn to lead singing. What do you suggest?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I'm searching for a CD of a capella hymns for my grandson who is attempting to lead the singing at our Wednesday night Bible studies.\u00a0 He has no music training or special talent except that he is very willing.\u00a0 I think the music he could sing along with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}