James Lea Summers

James Lea Summers is identified in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century hymn-tune indexes as the composer of LEA. Those indexes give his dates as 1837–1881, but dependable information about his birthplace, education, church appointments, and denominational affiliation remains scarce. A period account of Elizabeth Gilbert's work for blind people names Summers among the blind musicians who promoted an Association of Blind Musicians in London. Their aim was to provide serious musical training and help blind men obtain employment as organists and teachers. This evidence adds a meaningful professional context without supplying a complete biography.

The Church Book index associates Summers and the date 1862 with LEA. In a documented 1890 printing, the common-meter tune accompanies another Isaac Watts text, showing that it was not composed specifically for Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds. The earliest located pairing with this Psalm 78 hymn is in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal with Music (1908); the American Lutheran Hymnal retained it in 1930. Both printings name Summers as composer and set the tune in A major. LEA is therefore one later tune tradition for Watts's 1719 text, not part of the text's original publication. No reliable evidence located for this review supports assigning Summers a denomination or additional church post.