Introduction

Biography

Charles was the hus­band of Ber­ta (Bert­ie) Lee Nor­ris (mar­ried 1903).

Educated in the pub­lic schools of Lou­isi­ana and Mis­sis­sip­pi, he at­tend­ed se­ver­al sing­ing schools in his boy­hood days, and taught his first sing­ing school in 1895.

He at­tend­ed ses­sions of James Bow­man’s Am­eri­can Nor­mal School of Mu­sic (ANSM) (1897–98), and re­ceived a di­plo­ma there. He served as as­so­ci­ate prin­ci­pal at an ANSM ses­sion in 1900, tak­ing a post gra­du­ate course at the same time.

He at­tend­ed An­th­ony Sho­wal­ter’s Sou­thern Nor­mal Mu­sic­al In­sti­tute in Oma­ha, Tex­as, in 1901. James taught a num­ber of sing­ing schools and nor­mal in­sti­tutes, and sang at ev­an­gel­is­tic meet­ings.

As of 1904, he was liv­ing at his fa­ther’s home in Plea­sant Hill, Lou­isi­ana.

Works

James’ first song, High­way to Hea­ven, was wri­tten and pub­lished in 1899. He was one of the as­so­ci­ate au­thors of Hymns of Glo­ry.