High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Frances Jane Crosby (March 24, 1820 – February 12, 1915), usually known as Fanny Crosby in the United States and by her married name, Frances van Alstyne, in the United Kingdom, was an American Methodist rescue mission worker, poet, lyricist, and composer. During her lifetime, she was well-known throughout the United States. By the end of the 19th century, she was "a household name in evangelical Protestant circles" globally, and "one of the most prominent figures in American evangelical life". She became blind as a child.