November 9, 2026 - Good Morning! It’s Monday, November 9.
This Wednesday is Veteran’s Day, and with that in mind, each day this week we’ll focus on the stories behind some of our favorite patriotic songs. On Thursday night at 7, I’ll be the emcee of a patriotic song program at the Community House in Center, Texas. If you’re a local, I encourage you to join us.
The songs chosen for that program will mainly come from periods of American life when our nation was at war. Many of our patriotic anthems sprang from those times of great conflict. Songs like “Battle Hymn of the Republic” written during the Civil War, and “God Bless America” penned during World War I and made popular during World War II. But my favorite patriotic song was composed in 1893, a time of peace.
Katherine Bates, a 33-year-old professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, was on summer vacation that year in Colorado Springs, Colorado. One day, she and some friends decided to go to the summit of Pike’s Peak. I’ve been to the top of that 14,000 foot mountain - maybe you have too. But I made the journey in a comfortable train. Bates had to take a wagon part of the way, and then finish on horseback. Reaching the top she looked out on a view that can only be described as breathtaking, and that night, back at her hotel, she was inspired to write a poem from her experience, a poem that became the lyrics for “America, the Beautiful.”
In 1930, Congress voted that “The Star Spangled Banner” would be our official national anthem. Funny to think that America went a century and a half without one. But, if I had had a vote, I would have placed it for Bates’ hymn, a song that contains no references to battle or war. And a song that’s a lot easier to sing! In any case, “America the Beautiful” continues to be a cherished song of patriotism. At big events, like the Super Bowl, it s often included in the celebration.
Katherine Bates was widely celebrated for her writing during her lifetime. And since her death in 1929, she has received many posthumous honors, including being inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. But perhaps the honor that would have meant the most to Katherine, a teacher, would be the elementary school named after her in Wellesley, Massachusetts. And there’s one in Colorado Springs as well.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
