Who Wrote Footprints In The Sand?

I cannot remember the first time I read this poem, my husband was given a copy of it on a postcard when he was a teenager. The poem has been with us both for many years and has been in our home for the past twenty years. The poem has been a source of great inspiration to all the family down through the years.

I’m sure many of you have also read this inspiring and uplifting poem and noted that at the bottom where one would usually find the author’s name the words “Author Unknown” is found.

However, it has come to light that at least three authors have come forward with three slightly different versions of Footprints and each claim vehemently that she is the true author! I will write about two of these claims in this hub.

In 1979 Kathy Bee of Belliflower (singer-songwriter) was appearing in a nightclub in North Hollywood. In the audience was a lady called Mary Stevenson and after the performance Mary invited Kathy home for dinner.

Kathy complemented Mary on the many poems she had framed on her walls and Mary replied that she had written hundreds down through the years and showed Kathy a box full to the brim with pieces of paper on which were poems written by Mary. In this box Katy discovered a handwritten poem called Footprints in the Sand.

Kathy was shocked because her mother had given her a postcard copy of this poem when she began touring. Kathy had seen it in many truck stops along the road and here she was meeting the author in person!

Mary told Kathy that she wrote this poem while locked outside her home in Chester, PA in 1936. Sounded like a plausible story so Kathy encouraged Mary to copyright “Footprints” in 1984. Forensic reports on the handwritten poem shown to Kathy Bee by Mary Stevenson confirm that she is indeed the true author.

Margaret Fishback Powers claims she wrote the poem in 1964. She has written many well-known poems and songs in her role as a Christian minister over the years and has travelled across America preaching with her husband, also a minister.

Margaret’s version of Footprints in the Sand is also known as I had a dream and she copyrighted it in her collection of poems From Heart to Heart.

It is indeed a very interesting story and one that has continued to run long after the death of Mary Stevenson in 1999. But I guess whoever wrote this little gem of a poem is not that important to the majority of people.

The fact it has entered our lives and given us courage at times when we most felt alone or vulnerable is a gift not from the author but from the Universe. So big thank you to Mary and Margaret for the words and an even bigger thank you to the Universe for allowing it to come our way!

How did this poem make its way into you life?

Please share your experiences with this poem in the comment box below.

Thank you.