James David Vaughan - Lawrenceburg, TN
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 35° 14.415 W 087° 20.104
16S E 469514 N 3899737
Composer of gospel music,
Waymark Code: WMV1Q0
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 02/09/2017
Views: 1
County of marker: Lawrence County
Location of marker: S. Military St & Public Square, city hall lawn, Lawrenceburg
Marker erected by: Tennessee Historic Commission
Marker Text:
3F 43
JAMES DAVID VAUGHAN
1864 ~ 1941
Born in 1864, James D. Vaughan was a renowned gospel songwriter and publisher. In 1902 he founded the Vaughan Music Company in Lawrenceburg. In 1922, he established radio station WOAN, considered the first radio station licensed in Tennessee. In 1925, Vaughan had sixteen full~time gospel quartets touring the nation. Operating in Lawrenceburg until 1929 , WOAN broadcasted gospel music throughout the South.
"James D. Vaughan, “the father of southern gospel music,” was born on December 14, 1864 in Giles County, Tennessee. Vaughan grew up in Middle Tennessee surrounded by the sounds of gospel music. As a teenager, he attended his first singing school and showed an early aptitude for shaped note music. By the age of eighteen, Vaughan was teaching singing classes. Shortly thereafter, Vaughan started his first male gospel quartet with his brothers to advertise his school throughout the region.
"Upon returning to Tennessee, Vaughan began to publish his own music. In 1900, he published Gospel Chimes, a volume of shaped note hymns. In 1903, Vaughan founded the James D. Vaughan Publishing Company in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Over the next six years, his company averaged sales of sixty thousand songbooks a month." ~ Tennessee Encyclopedia