Born: January 29, 1912, Pandora, Ohio.
Died: September 2, 2007, Schaumburg, Illinois.
Buried: Mildred donated her body to science.
Dillon grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where her father was a minister, teacher and dean at the Fort Wayne Bible College.
She learned to play piano at an early age, and while in high school, she was an accompanist at the Fort Wayne Bible College.
She married William S. Dillon September 17, 1932. As musicians and composers, they continued their musical ministry at the Gospel Tabernacle in Fort Wayne.
On April 14, 1937, a tornado brought down a brick chimney (over 18 tons) around and on her while she was playing the piano at the Tabernacle. While buried in the rubble she was comforted by the knowledge that she was safe in God’s hands.
After what was deemed a miraculous recovery from serious injuries, Mildred and her husband became musical ministers for evangelist Paul Rader. They accompanied him to England in January 1938, and spent a year there.
During the ocean voyage to England, Mildred was awakened during a terrible storm. The storm reminded her that when she was injured in the tornado, she was safe in God’s hands. Music came to her in the midst of the ocean storm. In her diary for January 18, 1938 is this entry:
Wrote a little song about 4:30 a.m.
This is when she put the words and music together for Safe Am I.
The song became the best known of hundreds she composed during her lifetime; it has been translated into dozens of languages and sung throughout the world.
In 1943 Mildred and her husband took over the ministry at the Sunshine Gospel Mission in Chicago, Illinois, that her father-in-law, Michael B. Dillon, had begun. They worked in that ministry until 1970.
In later years, the Dillons traveled around the world ministering to missionaries at New Tribes Mission stations in Asia and throughout North America until they retired to Friendship Village in Schaumburg, Illinois.
At the Village, she was fondly known as the piano lady
because she played piano joyfully for many events until shortly before her passing.
If you know where to get better photo of Dillon,