Truett West

The Singing School Teacher Truett West

Galen Wilson Broussard learned the shape note method of reading music in 1922 when he was twelve years of age. Throughout his teen years and after he had become an undercover agent on the tugs, barges and docks on the Mississippi River, he eagerly sought every opportunity to attend gospel singings. After losing his job because his cover was blown in a very public trial, he set out on his riding mule, followed by a jack carrying packs of music books, to teach singing schools in a remote part of the Arkansas Ozarks. Knowing of his exemplary work on the river, law enforcement officials in Louisiana asked him to locate and rescue a kidnapped young girl, believed to be held in that same area of the Ozarks. Even with his experience as an investigator, he could not anticipate the surprises he would encounter in the performance of that task. Wrongdoers would likewise be surprised to learn that Galen Broussard was much more than a singing school teacher.