1904–2002

Introduction

Born: No­vem­ber 20, 1904, Pull­man, Wash­ing­ton.

Died: Ju­ly 17, 2002, St. John’s Hos­pi­tal, Spring­field, Mis­sou­ri.

Buried: White Cha­pel Me­mor­ial Gar­dens, Glad­stone, Mis­sou­ri.

portrait

Biography

Floyd was the hus­band of Nel­ba Ruth Parks.

He grew up in Wal­la Wal­la, Wash­ing­ton. While in col­lege in Wal­la Wal­la, he served as Ca­det Band­mas­ter in one of the first Re­serve Of­fi­cer Train­ing Corps (ROTC) un­its in the Am­eri­can north­west.

Later, he stu­died vo­cal mu­sic un­der Fred­er­ick Kle­op­per in Ta­coma, Wash­ing­ton, and in Se­at­tle, Wash­ing­ton, un­der John W. Bix­el, found­er and di­rect­or of the Se­at­tle Ora­tor­io So­ci­ety.

Hawkins be­came a Na­za­rene min­is­ter in 1933, and served five pas­tor­ates ov­er the next 2½ de­cades, in­clud­ing 12 years at First Church of the Na­za­rene, Stock­ton, Ca­li­for­nia.

In 1957, he be­came a mu­sic ed­it­or for Lil­le­nas Pub­lish­ing, a di­vi­sion of the Na­za­rene Pub­lish­ing House. He pub­lished some 500 songs in his life­time.

Sources

Lyrics

  1. Circle Grows Larg­er Up Yon­der, The
  2. Crystal Fount­ain, The
  3. God Has a Thou­sand Ways
  4. God Is Reign­ing on High
  5. God’s Coun­try Is a Land of Won­drous Beau­ty
  6. He Is No Strang­er to Me
  7. I Have Je­sus
  8. I Was a Strang­er and Lost in the Night
  9. I’ve Dis­co­vered the Way of Glad­ness
  10. Let Thy Man­tle Fall on Me
  11. Living Word, One Day Made Flesh in Je­sus, The
  12. Now Zi­on’s Ship Is Sail­ing
  13. O ’Tis Sweet When Je­sus Whis­pers
  14. Old Coun­try Cha­pel, The
  15. Thou Wilt Keep Him in Per­fect Peace
  16. Victory
  17. Way Is Grow­ing Bet­ter Eve­ry Day, The
  18. Willing to Take the Cross