My Grandmother who was from Texas used to sing this song and it has been a family favorite, though it has been years since we got togehter and sang. Our family story went that a young Pastor she knew wrote it and taught it to her. We used to have an old vinyl record of her singing it. I have always believed this as I have never heard it anywhere else. Google it on a whim tonight and found out that story was obviously wrong. Maybe she said only that he "wrote it down for her" and the story got twisted in the re-telling. Delighted to see the lyrics I learned are the same and the melody only slightly altered due to being handed down only vocally through the generations.