Emma Irene (Holmes) Coston was born December 3, 1846, in Wisconsin. About the year 1864 she married Lafayette Ruthven Coston, a veteran of the Civil War, who was born in Pennsylvania on April 28, 1842. To this union seven children were born, with three surviving to adulthood. A daughter, Helen Isabel, born in 1870, grew up to become a worker at the Gospel Trumpet Company and married Noah Byrum. Emma wrote the words to song #186, “A Happy Band,” in Songs of the Evening Light, published by the Gospel Trumpet Company in 1897. Emma departed this life on August 23, 1912, at the age of 65. She is buried in Norton Cemetery, Norton Shores, Michigan.