Born: December 8, 1887, Lebanon, Alabama.
Died: January 21, 1960, Dallas, Texas.
Buried: Laurel Land Memorial Park, Dallas, Texas.
Jesse was the son of James Robert Baxter and Napier Savannah Horton, and husband of Clarice Howard of Dekalb County, Alabama (married June 23, 1918).
He grew up in DeKalb County, Alabama. In 1926, he bought part of Virgil Stamps’ Gospel music firm, which became the Stamps-Baxter Music & Printing Company, one of the most successful Gospel music publishers of the early 20th Century.
Baxter ran the company’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, office until Stamps’ death in 1940, then moved to Dallas, Texas, to run the main office.
After his death, his wife Clarice ran the business until she died; it was then sold to Zondervan.
Jesse was inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in 1997.