Singer-songwriter Stuart Hamblen played bad guys in many of Republic Pictures' early westerns. "A cowboy's cowboy" was how Roy Rogers remembered him.
A tough, hard living Texas cowboy in real life, Hamblen gave up his rough and rowdy ways, turned his life over to God, and with wife, Suzy, began speaking and singing at churches and Billy Graham and Youth For Christ revivals.
Back home in California, he entered Christian broadcasting with a nationally syndicated Sunday morning radio show he called The Cowboy Church.
On a hunting trip in the mountains with his dogs (he never went anywhere
without them), he happened upon an abandoned shack and inside found the body of an old man apparently dead of natural causes. Driving home, he composed the song "This Ole House," later recorded by just about every singer in the business.
Other hits included "Remember Me (a huge hit for Dean Martin)," "His Hands (a big one for Tennessee Ernie Ford)," "Texas Plains (a biggie for the Sons of the Pioneers)," "My Mary," "It Is No Secret What God Can Do," "Known Only To Him," "Until Then," and "Teach Me Lord To Wait."
"Songs with a spiritual uplift," he called them.