Born: January 1, 1875, Shelby County, Alabama.
Died: March 17, 1957, Birmingham, Alabama.
Buried: Mount Era Cemetery, Shelby County, Alabama.
John was the son of George B. Washington Dye. He married twice, to Lottie Pearl Farr and Georgia Ann Armstrong Farr (Lottie’s sis-ter-in-law).
He was educated in the public schools, and began teaching in 1893.
Dye attended his first singing school in 1896, and bought a copy of Showalter’s New Harmony and Exposition. He was so eager to learn music that he worked out every exercise in the book without a teacher.
In 1899 and 1900, he attended two sessions of John Bowman’s American Normal School of Music, receiving a diploma at his first session.
He then attended a session of the Southern Normal Musical Institute at Thorsby, Alabama, in 1903, receiving a second diploma there. He began teaching music in 1900.