Ernest Orlando Sellers

Born: October 29, 1869, Hastings, Michigan.

Died: October 19, 1952, Eola, Louisiana.

    After graduating from high school in Lansing, Michigan, Sellers was apprenticed to a surveyor and civil engineer, and eventually became city engineer and superintendent of public works. In 1895, he became a student at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. From 1901 to 1905, he was YMCA secretary in Macon, Georgia; Washington, DC; and Wilmington, Delaware. He then was appointed director of men’s work and assistant pastor at the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, Cleveland Ohio (1905-07); and assistant director of the Music Department and professor Sunday school pedagogy at the Moody Bible Institute (1908-19). He worked for the YMCA Speakers Bureau in France and Germany during World War I. After the war, he was appointed director of the Music Department of the Baptist Bible Institute, New Orleans, Louisiana. The New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary named the E. O. Sellers Music Building after him. In 1926, he helped compile The New Baptist Hymnal. His other works include:

Hymns

  1. Open Our Eyes, Thy Glory Beholding (© 1940)
  2. Thy Word Have I Hid in My Heart

Music

  1. New Orleans