Andrew Jenkins
Songwriter
Reverend Andrew Jenkins was an Atlanta-based blind newsboy turned evangelist who became one of the most prolific composers of early-country “news ballads” — topical songs about disasters, outlaws, and tragedies that hit the headlines, sold thousands of records on Okeh, Edison, and Victor in the 1920s, and worked their way into the bluegrass and old-time canon.
- Born Andrew W. Jenkins on November 26, 1885, in Jenkinsburg, Georgia, on the edge of Atlanta. Left partially blind in infancy by a misprescribed medication.
- A self-taught multi-instrumentalist who learned every instrument he picked up by ear; began writing songs as a child and saw his musical gift as a divine calling.
- Began broadcasting on Atlanta’s WSB in 1922 as “the blind newsboy evangelist,” performing with his stepchildren as the Jenkins Family for nearly a decade. Audience reached Canada and Mexico.
- Signed with Okeh Records in 1924; the family became one of the earliest country-music groups on record.
- Wrote “The Death of Floyd Collins,” co-credited with stepdaughter Irene Spain — the song was a smash 1925 hit for Vernon Dalhart and is widely considered the prototype of the country “event song.”
- Other topical compositions: “Billy the Kid,” “The Wreck of the Royal Palm,” “Ben Dewberry’s Final Run,” “The Fate of Frank Dupre,” “The Tragedy on Daytona Beach.”
- Catalog estimated at more than 800 songs — roughly two-thirds sacred, one-third secular news ballads and folk-style pieces.
- Died April 25, 1957, in Atlanta.