Introduction

Biography

Glenn was the son of John Da­vid Vaugh­an and Jen­nie Eli­za­beth Free­mon, and hus­band of Stel­la Ben­ton. He was named af­ter R. A. Glenn, who com­piled songs for the Ruebush-Kief­fer pub­lish­ers, and song writ­er Al­dine Kief­fer. He mar­ried twice, to An­nie Mae Wa­ger and Min­nie Vi­o­la Dodd, and was brother-in-law to Will­iam Wal­bert.

In the 1920s, Glenn man­aged and sang lead for the Vaugh­an Quartet. He was one of the first to broad­cast re­gu­lar­ly on radio, es­pe­cial­ly WOAN, the first Gos­pel station in Ten­nes­see. He was al­so a song writ­er, re­cord­ed on the Vaugh­an Re­cord la­bel, and taught voice at the Vaug­han School of Mu­sic.

In 1934, he or­gan­ized the Ten­nes­see State Sing­ing Con­ve­ntion, and in 1949 was elect­ed pre­sident of the Na­tion­al Sing­ing Con­ven­tion.

Upon his father’s death in 1941, he took ov­er the Vaugh­an mu­sic publishing bu­si­ness, run­ning it for two de­cades. In ad­di­tion, he served as may­or of Law­rence­burg, Ten­nes­see (1947–51).

He was in­duct­ed in­to the Sou­thern Gos­pel Mu­sic As­so­ci­ation Hall of Fame in 1997.