Homer Rodeheaver in the News Again
Posted by Terry White on July 30, 2009
Surprisingly, one of the most famous historical residents of Winona Lake, Indiana, Homer Rodeheaver, is back in the news (from 1936). Check out this article from Time magazine by clicking here. Here is an excerpt:
For 22 years the ablest associate of the late Evangelist William Ashley (“Billy”) Sunday was Homer Alvan Rodeheaver, who played an old slide trombone which he bought for $4.50 while at Ohio Wesleyan University, led audiences in such rousing hymns as Brighten the Corner Where You Are!
The decline of old-style evangelism and the death of Billy Sunday left Homer Rodeheaver less newsworthy but no less busy. Unctuous, large of frame, full of vigor at 55, he is much in demand as a speaker at gatherings of such evangelical bodies as Christian Endeavor. He runs a publishing house with offices in Chicago and Philadelphia, keeps his friends in formed of his activities in periodic news letters which he calls “Rainbow-Graphs.”
A firm believer in music as a religious force, Homer Rodeheaver lined up a number of young people in Korea, Japan and the Philippines in 1929, staked them to musical education in the U. S. One of these, a Korean who fortnight ago received a doctor’s degree from Chicago Musical Dramatic Conservatory, changed his name to Rody Hyun in honor of his benefactor.
Last week Religionist Rodeheaver turned up in Manhattan, told newshawks about a trip he had made in the Congo with Methodist Missionary Bishop Arthur James Moore. Inviting his interviewers to call him “Reverend Trombone” or at least “Homer,” Mr. Rodeheaver explained that Negro spirituals had taken him to Africa.
Filed Under: Uncategorized