Faith & Popular

Sandwiched between the brash novelties and love-dove schmalz on the bestseller lists last week was a prayer set to music. Its composer was no professional songwriter. She was a 42-year-old Cincinnati housewife named Gladys Gollahon, wife of a bus driver and mother of three children. Her song, Our Lady of Fatima, was the more-or-less accidental result of her own prayers.

Like many another American, Gladys Gollahon had been praying for peace. As a Roman Catholic, she offered her devotions especially to Our Lady of Fatima, to whom many Catholics have long addressed their prayers for the conversion of Soviet Russia. Mrs. Gollahon, who composes songs as a hobby, wrote out her prayer in simple high-school verse, turned out a sugary little melody on her piano, marked her score "slowly with expression." Sample:

Dear Lady of Fatima, we come on

bended knee, To beg your intercession for peace and unity . . .

Pleased with the result, she spent $2.50 last spring to have a recording made. Then she took it to Cincinnati Disc Jockey (WCPO) Bill Dawes. Skeptical, Dawes listened to it. Said he afterward: "At first I thought it was just the mood I was in that made me like it, so in the middle of my show I said to my audience, 'Friends, here is a little song . . . called Our Lady of Fatima. I'm going to play it for you . . . and I'd like to know what you think of it.'"

He found out in a hurry: "Wham! Our switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree."

One of the thousands who heard Our Lady and liked it was Robbins Music Corp. Scout Billy White. Robbins decided to publish it; in rapid succession, seven record companies rushed out versions for either their "popular" or "faith" lists. By last week, with three separate recordings by Singers Kitty Kallen (with Richard Hayes), Tony Bennett and Red Foley appearing on Billboard and Variety popularity polls, Mrs. Gollahon glowed: "Why I feel like I'm dreaming yet. I didn't even intend Fatima to be commercial. It just happened."

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