"Little Brown Church"
Notes from Scott: After ferreting out the Limbaugh story to correct my mistake on compensation, I want to apologize to all of you. Tennyson had the answer to Part Lies and Part Truth. Thanks to Emerson we learn about Bessie Stanley and "Success." I end these thought provoking pieces with the song of the Little Brown Church which is in IOWA. My Mom and Dad alwys made sure that my brother, Bill and I went to church on Sunday no matter what faith it was. Dad was in the Army Air Corps during WWII and we traveled a lot. One of my favorite memories is this song from 1948 but I don't remember which church in Alabama other than it was on Gunter Air Force Base.
Part Lies and Part Truth

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1809 - 1892
The Grandmother [1864], st. 8

He said likewise
-That a lie which is half a truth
is ever the blackest of lies, 
-That a lie which is all a lie 
may be met and fought with outright, 
-But a lie which is part a truth 
is a harder matter to fight.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803 -1882
Success

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

--- inaccurately attributed to
 Ralph Waldo Emerson 

One researcher had this to say:

This quote is almost certainly not from Emerson, 
though it is often attributed to him. I have 
never been able to find it in any of Emerson's
writings, nor has anyone else to my knowledge 
(and plenty of people have been looking). 

As of now, it seems that the quote may be
traceable to a 1905 publication by a Bessie 
Stanley. Apparently, in a collection of 
quotations on "success," her poem appeared 
on the facing page from a quotation which 
was from Emerson. Perhaps the mistaken 
attribution began when someone copied the 
source inaccurately from that collection.
 
Here's a 1905 article from the Lincoln 
Sentinel about that version of the quote: 

Bessie Stanley's Famous Poem

Little Brown Church
 

There's a church in the valley by the wildwood,
No lovelier spot in the dale;
No place is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the vale.

Chorus:

Oh, come, come, come, come, come 
     to the church in the wildwood,
Oh, come to the church in the vale;
No spot is so dear to my childhood
As the little brown church in the vale.

Oh come to the church in the wildwood,
To the trees where the wild flowers bloom;
Where the parting hymn will be chanted
We will weep by the side of the tomb.

How sweet on a clear Sabbath morning,
To list to the clear ringing bell;
Its tones so sweetly are calling,
Oh, come to the church in the vale.

From the church in the valley by the wildwood,
When day fades away into night;
I would fain from this spot of my childhood
Wing my way to the mansions of light.

--Words and Music by:
--William S. Pitts, 1857