I paused and waited for some more appropriate person to write this memorial, to not rush ahead of someone better suited for the task. But like Elihu of old, “the spirit within me constraineth me.” About 4:30 a.m. one morning I had to get up and set down some thoughts in writing.
Samuel Michael “Mike” Hinton was born May 8, 1943, in Washington, DC, to Grover L. Hinton and Violet Denson. He was a grandson of the legendary Sacred Harp singer, teacher, and composer Thomas Jackson Denson. The Denson family created the Sacred Harp Publishing Company, and revised the 1911 James Edition of The Sacred Harp. Outliving his cousins Amanda Brady and Richard Mauldin, Mike was the last Denson family member serving the publishing company. He passed from the walks of this life at age 82, on Friday, July 18, 2025.
Mike had a long-term military career (retired from the U. S. Army Medical Service Corps, with the rank of Colonel), and became very active in the Sacred Harp Community after his retirement. Mike traveled widely and became a great and much-loved ambassador of good will for the Sacred Harp tradition. I believe that the addition of the words “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound” to No. 146 in the 2012 Cooper Edition of The Sacred Harp rose as a good-will response to that kind of good will displayed by Mike. He liked add those words to the song when he led Hallelujah.
Among other things, Mike Hinton served as Chair of the Texas State Convention (1996, 2015), the Southwest Texas Convention (2008), Rusk County Convention (2016), and Coker Singing Convention (2008-2011). Around 2012 the Coker Singing held at Mike’s church was “consolidated” into the Texas State Convention, which singing’s location was moved to the Coker Church in San Antonio, Texas. Mike was treasurer of the Texas State Convention at least for 2020-2024 (according to minutes where I found it mentioned, but possibly longer). In 2002 Mike Hinton was elected President of the Board of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company, and served in that capacity until his passing in July of 2025. In 2018, during Mike’s tenure as president, the Sacred Harp Publishing Company Board of Directors unanimously approved a revision of their 1991 Edition of The Sacred Harp (which will become available in September 2025).
I admired (even envied) Mike’s ability to prepare and present a moving memorial lesson. We asked him a number of times to conduct the memorial lesson at the East Texas Convention. Now he becomes a subject in rather than a presenter of our lessons. Surely some lessons will include that song he so loved:
And let it faint and die;
My soul shall quit this mournful vale,
And soar to worlds on high.
Take life or friends away,
But let me find them all again,
In that eternal day.
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
And you’ll sing hallelujah,
And we’ll all sing hallelujah,
When we arrive at home.
Friend, you have arrived at home. We’ll keep singing “Hallelujah” down here, knowing you are singing “Hallelujah” up there – where you may now say with experience rather than hope, “My Father’s house on high, Is my eternal home.”
Please remember Mike’s family in your prayers, and remember him when you sing.
Additional information: Mike will be buried with military honors at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery on Wednesday, August 6th at 11:00 a.m. A Celebration of Life Service will take place at Coker Global Methodist Church in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday, October 4th at 10:00 a.m. A reception at Coker will follow this service. See Obituary.
Note: In 2016 Mike served as Chair of the Rusk County Singing Convention, a combined Christian Harmony-Cooper Sacred Harp Convention. I also remember Mike serving as Chair of the Smith Memorial Convention, but did not find the records to show what year or years.
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