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What was Lewis Grizzard’s favorite hymn?
Ronda Rich
When I wrote about the night that a woman arose at a little church we were visiting in Highlands, NC, and proclaimed that her favorite hymn was also the favorite hymn of Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard, the mail poured in. One after another, many of you asked, “What was Lewis Grizzard’s favorite hymn? You didn’t say.” One of those who asked was even the great newspaper man who was my first boss and is certainly feeling pretty shameful about that, too. I’m sorry he had to ask. He taught me better. He taught me to answer a question before a reader could ask. And I didn’t. The reason is pretty sorry, too. I simply didn’t remember. Over a year had passed since that night and since it was a Methodist hymn that was completely unfamiliar to this Baptist, I couldn’t recall it. Another reason that I didn’t worry with mentioning it is that I didn’t really believe it was his favorite hymn – even though Lewis was a Methodist and it could have been. But I read most of the words that he wrote in his lifetime and he had never mentioned that song. If Lewis said it, I remembered it. They were a form of Southern scripture to me.He did mention a few times in his column and once in a book that his favorite hymn was “Precious Memories.”