Elizabeth Fetzer Bates

Elizabeth Fetzer Bates (March 30, 1909 – November 20, 1999) was an American Latter-day Saint musician, most noted for being the author of the children's songs "Book of Mormon Stories" and "Pioneer Children Sang As They Walked".

Biography Bates was born in Salt Lake City, Utah to John Fetzer, an architect, and his wife Margaret Baer. She was the older sister of Emil B. Fetzer. Elizabeth graduated from LDS Business College. In 1931, she established a Yesharah Society at the University of Utah, where women who had returned from missions could keep in contact with each other.

In 1934 Elizabeth married Lucian Bates followed by a PhD, developing a new system of coding music for blind musicians. She taught piano and composed music. described as "Perhaps the most familiar and best loved .. song". Bates had been inspired to write the song after meeting 104-year-old Ruth May Fox, who as a child had traveled on foot and by wagon to Utah. Both songs are included in the LDS Church's Children's Songbook.