Introduction

Biography

Albert was the son of Will­iam Ma­ri­on La­fay­ette Neece and Ma­ry Eli­za­beth Arm­strong. He mar­ried three times: To Maude Rew­sey, Geor­gia Ro­rex, and Je­mi­mah Luc­re­tia Eli­za­beth Wat­kins.

He moved to Tex­as with his par­ents in 1877, and at­tend­ed his first sing­ing school around age six­teen.

He be­gan stu­dy­ing mu­sic dur­ing a ses­sion of An­th­ony Sho­wal­ter’s Sou­thern Nor­mal Mu­sic In­sti­tute (SNMI) in Al­vord, Tex­as, in 1894. He lat­er at­tend­ed two SNMI ses­sions at Sun­set, Texas, and one at Bow­ie, Texas.

He went on to teach at a num­ber of Tex­as lo­ca­tions, be­gin­ning in 1896. His first com­po­si­tion ap­peared in the Song-Land Mes­sen­ger in 1897.

As of 1904, he was liv­ing in Fruit­land, Tex­as, where he had suc­cess­ful farm­ing in­ter­ests.