Introduction

Biography

Virgil was the son of Or­lan­do Hop­kins Brock and El­mi­ra Ma­lis­sa Har­ris. He mar­ried twice: to Blanche Ma­rie Kerr (1914) and Mar­tha An­der­son (1959).

He was or­dained a min­is­ter of the Chris­tian Church at age 19. In 1914, while serv­ing in Greens Fork, In­di­ana, he met and mar­ried Blanche, who served as the team’s com­pos­er and pi­an­ist.

Virgil knew no­thing of mu­sic the­ory, but with Blanche’s help, he’s cred­it­ed with writ­ing more than 500 songs. Tri­ni­ty Col­lege, Du­ne­din, Flo­ri­da, award­ed him an Hon­or­ary De­gree of Sac­red Mu­sic in 1969 for his con­tri­bu­tions to the field.

The Brocks lived in In­di­an­apo­lis, In­di­ana, from as ear­ly as 1942 un­til Blanche’s death in 1958. Vir­gil spent his last days at the Youth Ha­ven Ranch, a mis­sion to un­der­pri­vi­leged child­ren in Rives Junc­tion, Mi­chi­gan.