Eugene Bartlett

Eugene Monroe Bartlett, Sr. (1885–1941) was an American gospel singer, songwriter, and publisher who became a foundational figure in Southern Gospel music. Born in Waynesville, Missouri, he later made his home in Arkansas, where he founded the Hartford Music Company in 1918. Through this publishing venture, he helped shape the repertoire of the shape-note singing tradition that was central to rural church music across the South.

Bartlett was also a devoted educator, teaching singing schools throughout the southern United States and serving as editor of the music magazine Herald of Song. Over his lifetime, he composed more than eight hundred songs, leaving a deep catalog that congregations would sing for generations. Among his best-known works are “Victory in Jesus,” written in 1939, “Everybody Will Be Happy Over There,” “Just a Little While,” and “He Will Remember Me.”

His contributions to gospel music were recognized posthumously when he was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1973. The legacy of the Bartlett name continued in his son, Eugene “Gene” Bartlett, Jr., who also became a gospel musician, composer, and minister of music.