Thomas Talley (18701952)
In the world of chemistry Thomas Talley is best known for being the teacher who encouraged St. Elmo Brady to aim high in his career goals. But even though Talley was the chair of the chemistry department at Fisk University for 25 years, today he is best known in the world of music. Talley wrote down a lot of the folk songs of African Americans in rural Tennessee. He collected over 300 songs and published them in a book called Negro Folk Rhymes. You can still buy it today. Talley loved all kinds of music, not just folk tunes. He wrote the Christmas carol “Behold that Star” and was director of the Mozart Society at Fisk.