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B. B. McKinney

American musician (1886-1952)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 15, 2025
Entity authorityQ4874622
Source-derived summary

Baylus Benjamin McKinney or B. B. McKinney (July 22, 1886 – September 7, 1952), was an American singer, song writer, teacher, and music editor.

Biography

McKinney was a native of rural Heflin in south Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana. He was an alumnus of Louisiana College in Pineville, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Siegel-Myers School of Music and the Bush Conservatory of Music, both in Chicago, Illinois.

McKinney wrote the words and music to 149 hymns and gospel songs. His most famous are "The Nail Scarred Hand" (1924), "Let Others See Jesus in You" (1924), "Satisfied with Jesus" (1926), "Speak to My Heart" (1927), "'Neath the Old Olive Trees" (1934), "Breathe on Me" (1937), and "Wherever He Leads I'll Go" (1937). He was also the editor of the widely-used Broadman Hymnal (1940, Nashville).

B.B. McKinney Chapel (which was demolished in 2003-2004 for the construction of the new R.A. Young Tabernacle) was on the grounds of Falls Creek Baptist Encampment in Davis, Oklahoma, it was named in his honor. He was posthumously inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1982.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “B. B. McKinney” is american musician (1886-1952). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through McKinney, American and musician, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1886, 1952, 1924, 1926—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1886-07-22. For this dossier, McKinney, American and musician is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american musician (1886-1952)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 15, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4874622. VIAF identifies the subject as 21116797. The Library of Congress control number is n85142894. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1886, 1952, 1924 and 1926.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “B. B. McKinney”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow B. B. McKinney primary sources, B. B. McKinney archive and McKinney research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “B. B. McKinney”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from B. B. McKinney” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.