Eugene Monroe Bartlett

Eugene Monroe Bartlett Sr., was born on December 24, 1885, in Waynesville, Missouri.[1][2][3] He grew up in Sebastian County, Arkansas.[1][2] He attended the Hall-Moody Institute in Martin, Tennessee and graduated from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri.[1][3]

Barlett first worked for the Central Music Company, a shape note music publisher in Hartford, Arkansas.[1][3] In 1918, with David Moore and John A. McClung, he co-founded the Hartford Music Company in Hartford.[1][2][3] He served as its President from 1918 to 1935.[1][3] Over the course of nearly two decades, he opened new branches in Nacogdoches, Texas and Hartshorne, Oklahoma.[3]

He was the founder of the Hartford Music Institute in 1921.[1][3] Five years later, he mentored Albert E. Brumley,[2] who attended the institute.[1][3]

He published The Herald of Song, a monthly magazine about gospel music.[1][3]

A prolific songwriter, he wrote many Christian gospel songs such as Everybody Will Be Happy Over There, Just a Little While, He Will Remember Me, You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down, and Victory in Jesus. He also wrote the country music song Take an Old Cold Tater (and Wait), recorded by Little Jimmy Dickens.[1][3]

Barlett married Joan Tatum in 1917. They had two children: Gene Bartlett Jr., and Charles Bartlett.[1][2]

Barlett died on January 25, 1941. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.[1]

Bartlett was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee in 1973.[1][2] His Victory in Jesus appeared on Hymns, an album by Christian singer Michael W. Smith released in 2014.