Myra Brooks Welch (October 12, 1877 – August 11, 1959

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

) was a poet that is known for her Christian poem '' The Touch of the Master's Hand'', which was also adapted into a film.

Personal life

Myra Brooks was born on October 12, 1877, in Farmington Township, Fulton County, Illinois to Mary (née Eshelman) and John W. Brooks. She was the youngest of four other siblings: Charles, David, Frank and Dessie. By 1900, she and her parents had relocated to Independence, Oregon, where she was working as a sales clerk in a store. Around 1901, she married Otis Melvin Welch, who was a clerk in a

dry goods Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British Empire (and Common ...

store and had two children, Otis and Doris. By 1920, her parents had moved with her and her family and they were all living in

La Verne, California La Verne is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 31,334 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History The area was home to Native Americans. The European history of the area dates back to the ...

. Welch's most noted poem, ''The Touch of the Master's Hand'' was written in 1921 and published on February 26, 1921, in the '' Gospel Messenger''. She published four books of poetry ''The Years Between'' (1929), ''Dorcas'' (1930), ''High Songs'' (1933) and ''The Touch of the Master's Hand'' (1941). Welch was disabled in a wheelchair from arthritis. Her arthritis later caused her to not be able to play music, such as the organ which she used to play. Her hands were disabled, but she wrote poems on a typewriter by pressing the keys with pencil erasers, despite the pain that it caused. She was named "the poet with the singing soul". She was a resident of La Verne, California. As a youngster her special joy was playing the organ but this was denied her in later life as she was severely affected by arthritis and spent much of her time in a wheelchair. She wrote with an inverted pencil in each of her gnarled hands and would pick out the words on a typewriter. She said that the joy of her writing outweighed the pain of her efforts.

References

External links

* 1877 births 1959 deaths People from Fulton County, Illinois People from La Verne, California American women poets 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers American writers with disabilities {{US-poet-1870s-stub