Loy E. Foust was my father. He was born in Cleburne County Arkansas in 1907 and died there in 1995. His first Singing School teacher was Luther G. Presley who with Virgil O. Stamps was the author of "When the Saints Go Marching In." Dad wrote his first song and taught his own first singing school when he was 15.

It was only by means of people like Dad that rural southerners were able to learn anything about the rudiments of music. But, amazingly enough, within ten day or ten nights, Dad could have any group of young people seriously interested in learning to sight read doing so.
One of the main reasons for writing all of those new songs every year was to enable these music lovers to practice their sight reading skills. People who merely sang "by ear", were not very well respected by the students of music!

I have a plaque that was awarded to Dad by Bill Clinton while he was governor of Arkansas in honor of his contributions to the state in this and other ways during his lifetime. (For over fifty years he also served as the Justice of the Peace of his township and a member of the County's Quorum Court which had to approve the County's budget every year.)