My Redeemer Lives
135

Text: Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008; LDS)
Music: G. Homer Durham (1911–1985; LDS)
Tune name: EUDORA

From President Gordon B. Hinckley, who in 1995 became the fifteenth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints, comes this moving, poetic testimony of the Savior. In the most unequivocal language, this hymn declares the divinity and mission of Jesus Christ. The images of light, faith, and security that are used so effectively in the text are familiar to every Latter- day Saint.

President Hinckley’s poem first appeared in the New Era magazine in April 1983. Several composers submitted musical settings, one of which was to be chosen to be paired with the text in the 1985 hymnbook. President Hinckley himself expressed a preference for a simple setting. In his words, he wanted something he “could easily sing to the cows while milking them.”

When President Hinckley first heard Elder G. Homer Durham’s hymn tune, without knowing the name of the composer, he felt it was just the kind of direct, simple tune he had hoped for. When he learned the composer’s identity, he was even more pleased. The two men had been lifelong friends, from grade school through college and mission days and beyond.

Beth S. Rasmussen, for eight years secretary to the hymn’s composer, the late Elder G. Homer Durham, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, recorded her memories of Elder Durham’s writing of the hymn tune. One weekend in March 1983, when Elder Durham traveled on assignment to a stake conference, he took with him a copy of the most recent New Era magazine, which included the poem, “My Redeemer Lives,” by President Hinckley. By the time he returned home, he had sketched a hymn tune, which he said came quite easily to him as he read the poem. After he had written out the tune in final form, Beth Rasmussen suggested to him that they show it to Michael Moody, at that time the executive director of the Church Music Department. She reported, “Following a series of telephone calls a letter arrived in June 1984 which indicated Elder Durham’s hymn tune had been selected for inclusion in the new hymnal. . . . After receiving a list of other suggested titles, Elder Durham wrote in bold, blue ink:

1st choice—’My Redeemer Lives’
2nd choice—’My Redeemer Lives’
3rd choice—’My Redeemer Lives’

He explained to me that although there are other well-known hymns with similar titles, he could not improve upon the title President Hinckley had given his own poem. I agreed wholeheartedly.”

The tune name honors Eudora W. Durham, wife of the composer.