Kenneth Morris

Who was Kenneth Morris?

Kenneth Morris was a African American composer of gospel music and publisher who popularized several songs, including "Just a Closer Walk with Thee".

Morris was born in New York in 1917 and performed in church as a youth before becoming a professional jazz musician. He studied at the Manhattan Conservatory of Music and founded a band which performed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1934. He became ill while in Chicago and decided to permanently relocate there. In Chicago he was introduced to several prominent members of the gospel community, including Charles Pace and Lillian Bowles. Morris eventually became one of the first musicians to introduce the Hammond organ to gospel music.

Morris met Sallie Martin, a Georgia native, in the choir at First Church of Deliverance in Chicago where she was the choir director and they co-founded Martin and Morris Music Company, the nation's oldest continuously running black gospel music publishing company, which operated from 1940 until the 1980s. In 1940 Kenneth Morris arranged and published for the first time the well-known version after gospel musicians Robert Anderson and RL Knowles listened to William B. Hurse sing it in Kansas City and brought it to Morris' attention. Morris added some new lyrics and a choral arrangement. Morris bought out Martin in the 1973. Morris died in 1988, and his widow Necie ran the business for a short period after his death before closing.