ASHEVILLE, NC (WOWK) — Well-known southern gospel singer Squire Parsons, famous for writing the classic “Sweet Beulah Land,” has died, as confirmed by personal friends. He was 77 years old.
Parsons was born in West Virginia and after graduating from West Virginia Institute of Technology with a BS in music, he became the band director at Hannan Junior Senior High School, where he wrote “Sweet Beulah Land.”
Dr. John. R. Carlisle, the principal at Hannan High School, told 13 News in an exclusive interview that he had been talking with Parsons by phone over the last few weeks because Parsons is going to be honored at the campus, along with other notable alumni.
“I called him, and he sent me the manuscript for ‘Sweet Beulah Land’ that he wrote on his way to work at the high school,” said Carlisle. “He finished the first part of the song after he got to work. He told me he was driving into work and looked up at the sun, and it made him think of an old gospel hymn his dad used to sing, and that caused him to write ‘Sweet Beulah Land.’”
Carlisle said he had just sent Parsons a message recently and hadn’t heard back from him, and then he got the sad news today that Parsons had died.
“I had invited him to come in for our celebration at Christmas and was hoping he’d get to sing ‘Sweet Beulah Land’ here for that,” Carlisle said. “We will now make it a celebration of Squire Parsons.”
Carlisle said a plaque with his sheet music and an autographed photo will go up on a wall in the school in Parsons’ memory.
“‘Sweet Beulah Land’ is such an inspiring and beautiful song,” Carlisle said. “He is such a big part of Hannan history, and we want to honor his memory.”
Robin Richardson, who now lives in Fraziers Bottom, was a student in Hannan’s band under Parsons, and she said she and all of the band members loved him.
“He was just one of a kind,” Richardson told 13 News. “He was a good, Christian man and an inspiration to all of us. He actually wrote a lot of his songs in our band building.”
Richardson’s bandmate, Kathy Coleman-Tate, told 13 News that she kept in contact with Parsons and, just two days ago, he even liked a photo of her mother that she put up on Facebook for Mother’s Day.
“He started at Hannan as the band director in 1970 and said he was only going to stay there one year, and he stayed until 1975 when I graduated,” Coleman-Tate said. “He stayed until the Lord called him on to other things.”
Coleman-Tate said Parsons lived not far from her in North Carolina, and she saw him once there and once in nearby Huntington.
“I was so proud. I would tell everybody that he was my band director, and they couldn’t believe it because he was such a great singer,” Coleman-Tate said. “They just loved him, too. They couldn’t believe he was my band director. He was just a great man. He was so nice to everybody.”
Coleman-Tate said she read on Facebook in the early morning hours that Parsons had died.
“I will love that song forever,” she said.
Parsons composed many other well-known Gospel songs, including “The Master of the Sea,” “Walk On,” “He Came To Me,” “I Call It Home,” “I Sing Because” and “I’m Not Giving Up.”
Parsons was ordained as a minister at Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville, NC.
John Roberts, executive director of Mountain Mission in Charleston, said Parsons sang every year at the church’s annual Christmas benefit.
“We had the privilege of having Squire Parsons sing every year for 40 years,” Roberts said. “It was an event that helped feed nearly 1,000 families every Christmas, and he would come and sing for us, and sometimes his brothers would come up on stage and join him.”
Roberts said he has fond memories of Parsons, whom he called “the gentle giant.”
“He was about 6-feet-6, but he was the most gentle person,” Roberts said. “He would sing ‘Sweet Beulah Land’ every year because that was his signature song, but he would change it a bit for Christmas.”
Roberts said Mountain Mission sent a tractor-trailer load of flood relief supplies down to Parsons’ church following Hurricane Helene and the severe flooding last year.
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