Tag: Passings

Pastor and recording artist, Bishop John Heath, to be funeralized this weekend

Homegoing services have been set for Bishop John Heath, who transitioned Friday, January 23: Funeral for popular pastor and singer John Henry Heath set for Saturday


Bishop Heath was the founder and pastor of Greater Higher Ground Ministries in Winston-Salem, NC.  He was also a well-known vocalist and recording artist–featured with the Gospel Music Workshop of America, David Allen and the Ambassadors for Christ Church Choir, and in theatrical roles as a member of the North Carolina Black Repertory Theater.

Marsha Sumner, longtime DC area radio personality, succumbs

From Bill Carpenter:


Marsha D. Sumner, a native Washingtonian and celebrated local gospel
radio announcer for two decades, died on Saturday, January 24, after a
brief illness. She was 69.
 
Sumner,
who was born on April 20, 1945, attended DC public schools
and graduated from Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School, where she
excelled in sports and received an athletic scholarship to Tennessee
A&I State University.  Marsha declined the offer saying, “All they
wanted me to do was run track and that rubbed me the wrong way.”
Alternatively, she started a career in government service, working at
HUD and FEMA for 30 years in areas that included recovery work at
natural disaster sites. “I felt like I had found my niche,” she once
said. “At the end of the day, I could always see that I had helped
somebody.”
 
“While
she was traveling around the country covering earthquakes, hurricanes
and floods for FEMA, I always told her she had a very distinct voice for
radio,” said her long-time friend and former media executive Portia
Scott, who first met Sumner at a church they both attended in
the mid-1980s. “I encouraged her dream and the next thing I knew, she
had a vocal coach, enrolled and graduated from the Columbia School of
Broadcasting,” Scott continued.
 
In
the late 1980s, Sumner began to volunteer at the University of
the District Columbia’s radio station WDCU 90.1 FM. “She did that so she
could be in the broadcasting environment and learn to work the boards,”
Scott adds. Before long, Sumner was hosting her own gospel music
program at UDC on Sunday mornings during the 6 to 8 AM slot. She
remained there for a decade until the station was sold to C-SPAN in
1997. Sumner then briefly worked for WWGB 1040 AM in Suitland, MD before
she was hired by CBS Radio’s WPGC Heaven 1580 AM, where she held down
midday and overnight on-air positions for a dozen years.
 
Sumner
used her radio platform to expand her mentoring and evangelistic
ministry, focusing on youth in the DC metropolitan area. Some of her
youth programs included organizing Youth in Praise Rallies that she
called “Holy Ghost Throw Downs,” which drew thousands of area kids.  She
hosted “gospel nights” at various roller skating rinks and was also one
of the first regional radio announcers who sought to include Christian
rap in the traditional-styled gospel radio format. “I want them to come
off the street and get this message while they [come together] and
have fun,” she told The Washington Post in a 1993 article.
 
“I was
immediately drawn to Marsha’s warm smile and quiet strength,” Heaven
1580’s former program director Matt Anderson said of Sumner in a recent
Facebook posting. “She knew the DMV and they knew her. Everybody liked
Marsha, in part, because of her contribution to the team. She was unique
in her approach to radio and listening to her was like talking to an
old friend.”

Sumner coined phrases during her broadcasts such as “stay
close,” “love you most much,” and often told the listening audience
to seek her out at station events so that she could “hug your neck.” At
Heaven 1580, Sumner interviewed some of the biggest names in gospel
music such as Yolanda Adams, Candi Staton, Richard Smallwood, and Israel
Houghton, among others. Her favorite was CeCe Winans. “She has a sweet
spirit and is always the same. Interviewing her was like a paycheck to
me,” she once said.
 
Heaven 1580
briefly flipped to a Christian Talk station where Sumner hosted a
“Cross Talk-Urban Style” program for a few months in 2009. On this show
she led discussions involving an array of public issues and said at the
time, “Now I feel like I am helping people by keeping my community
informed.” After that station flipped again, Sumner chose to retire to
her home in Silver Spring, MD. However, she continued to actively attend
and participate in her evangelistic ministry as a member of the
Ebenezer A.M.E. Church in Fort Washington, MD, along with maintaining a
presence at various local gospel and community events.

Marsha
Sumner’s parents Hubert and Miriam Sumner and several aunts preceded
her in death. She is survived by her loving brother Hubert Sumner III,
several cousins, two goddaughters and a host of special friends. 

Summer will be celebrated in a funeral service February 3, 2015 at noon at
Ebenezer A.M.E. Church, 7707 Allentown Road, Ft. Washington, MD. Viewing
is at 10am.

Bernard Thorpe of John Thorpe and Family has died

GMF extends condolences to the family and friends of Bernard Thorpe, who passed early Tuesday morning, January 20, in Durham, NC, after a period of  illness. He was 69 years old.


Thorpe was a member of John Thorpe and Family of Rougemont, NC, a traditional gospel group consisting of his siblings.  Perfectly content to harmonize in the background, he was often nudged to the forefront as audiences loved his characteristically dark but not too frequently heard baritone lead. 


Thorpe was also a member of the New Hope Person Male Chorus of Timberlake, NC. His love for old school quartet music placed him front and center at the 2011 appreciation musical celebrating Jo Jo Wallace of the Sensational Nightingales for 65 years in music ministry. There, he led the male chorus’s musical tribute with the Gales’ 1955 hit “Somewhere to Lay My Head.” The trot down Memory Lane was one of the evening’s highlights.


In addition to 12 brothers and sisters, Thorpe is survived by his children and a host of relatives. 


Viewing & Visitation
Friday, January 23, 2015
7 – 9 PM
Holloway Memorial Funeral Home
2502 NC Hwy 55
Durham, NC 27713

Homegoing Service
Saturday, January 24, 2015
2 PM
New Hope Person Missionary Baptist Church
1261 Tom Oakley Road
Timberlake, NC 27583

Andraé Crouch (1942-2015) was part of my church family [Arrangements Added]

By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever

Andraé Crouch passed today (January 8) in Los Angeles. He was 72.  (Read the related story at USA Today.) My prayers are with his twin sister Sandra and the Crouch family as well as the New Christ Memorial Church of God in Christ, friends, and fans.

Though I knew the Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and pastor had been hospitalized since Saturday, reportedly in critical condition from a heart attack, his passing hits me as though he was part of my church family. In a way, he was. As a minister of music, I felt my repertoire of choir selections was incomplete without a Crouch gem. “Maybe God’s Trying to Tell You Something” (from The Color Purple), “Let the Church Say Amen,” “Soon and Very Soon,” “Jesus is the Answer,” “Through It All,” and the classic he penned at age 14, “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” have permanent pages in my music catalog, and he, through his powerful, meaningful, and relatable songs, will have an abiding presence in the Sunday worship services I conduct as music director.

Andraé Crouch was very likely part of your church family too. His contributions to American music are too numerous to mention. The artists he has influenced are copious. The masses he has led to Christ are countless. 

Crouch was a pioneer and a legend–and other legends and contemporaries embraced opportunities to work with him. In 2012, “Queen of Gospel” Pastor Shirley Caesar told me that her dream collaboration would be a duet with the man whom some have called “the father of modern gospel music.”

His music is timeless. His legacy is lasting.   

Arrangements have been announced, and both services will stream live.

What is your favorite Andraé Crouch song? Please share in the comment section below. 

Rev. Cleophus Robinson, Jr. has died

Cleophus Robinson, Jr.

Dr. Patricia James-Holloway informed GMF that Rev. Cleophus Robinson, Jr. passed away December 23. He was 57 years old.

Robinson and his five siblings followed in the musical footsteps of their parents, the late Rev. Cleophus Robinson, Sr. and the late Mrs. Bertha Robinson. The younger Robinson was a noted preacher, singer, organist, choir director, recording artist, and radio personality (WESL, KSTL, and Gospel 1600). During his father’s pastorate at Greater Bethlehem Baptist Church in St. Louis, he served as the minister of music.

At age 17, Robinson recorded his first solo album entitled Keep on Stepping on a Nashboro label subsidiary. Some of his additional recordings include Consolation (Savoy, 1980), Back Again (Malaco, 1993), and What You Need (Malaco, 1995). In 2012, Emerged/Reborn Records released a single by Robinson, “He That Thirsteth.”

Dr. Patricia James-Holloway (niece of Robinson Sr. and daughter of Sister Josephine James) remembers her cousin as a “powerhouse” singer and preacher as well as a great musician who “made the organ talk.”

GMF extends heartfelt condolences to Robinson’s family and friends during this difficult time of transition.  

Vanessa Bell Armstrong mourns passing of son

Please join GMF in extending condolences to Vanessa Bell Armstrong in the passing of her son Terrance.  The gospel singer tweeted the news of her son’s passing Thursday, December 4, via Twitter.

Early Friday morning, she shared this tweet with her followers:

Our prayers are with the family during this very difficult time.

Julia Mae Price-Williams of the Davis Sisters, Caravans, succumbs

Bob Marovich of the Journal of Gospel Music informed GMF that Julia Mae Price -Williams, formerly of the Davis Sisters and the Caravans, passed away.  GMF extends condolences to her family and friends.

Price-Williams started singing at age three.  It’s a talent that ran in her family–her father, Rev. Julian Price (who was a pastor in Augusta, GA), and several aunts also sang. As a teenager, she was a member of the Vashti Singers. In the 1960s, she joined the Davis Sisters of Philadelphia before becoming a member of the Caravans in 1966. In 1983, she released her first solo album, which earned “Artist of the Year” and “Traditional Singer of the Year” nominations from the Gospel Music Workshop of America.

Joseph Middleton of the Golden Era Gospel Blog interviewed Price-Williams in 2009, during which she spoke about her career as well as present-day gospel music: The Golden Era Gospel Blog Interviews a Gospel Legend: Ms. Julia Mae Price-Williams.

Rev. Jonas Brown, former WNCU radio host, dies

From The Herald-Sun
From The Herald-Sun (10/31/14):
DURHAM – Reverend Jonas Buster Brown passed on October 27, 2014 in Durham, NC.

He leaves to cherish his memory his loving wife Rosa Hannah Brown; four
sons, Christopher Brown (Monica V. Martin), Jimmy Hannah (Tomeka
Copeage), Jonas R. Hannah, Jr. (Linda Yvette Cox), Richard Lamont Brown;
three brothers, Willie Boston, Jr. (Patricia), Erol Boston and Wayne
Boston.
 
A memorial service will be held Saturday, November 1, 2014 at Lakeview
Baptist Church, 3411 Dearborn Drive, Durham, NC, beginning at 1 p.m. A
visitation with family and friends will take place at 12:30 p.m.
 
Arrangements are entrusted to Scarborough and Hargett Memorial Chapel
and Gardens, Inc. Online condolences may be expressed at
Scarboroughandhargettfh.com.
Brown was the former host of the Sunday morning radio show “Gospel Connections” on North Carolina Central University’s WNCU 90.7 FM.

Charles Johnson of the Nightingales, Revivers passes on

Charles JohnsonGMF is sad to share news of the passing of singer/musician/songwriter Charles Johnson, formerly of the Sensational Nightingales and Charles Johnson & The Revivers. Johnson passed this morning (Monday, October 6). He was 83 years old. He is survived by his wife and six children.

During my childhood, I regularly attended concerts featuring the Sensational Nightingales. Johnson was indeed one of the most unique and earnest voices in gospel quartet music.

Read more by Barbara Huffman and see homegoing arrangements at www.singingnews.com.

The “Gospel Memories” Radio Show with host Bob Marovich will feature an extended set of Johnson’s recordings this Saturday (October 11).  The show airs at 10 am central time and can be streamed live at www.gospelmemories.com.

Melvin, Doug Williams & family mourn passing of matriarch, Amanda Williams

Join GMF in extending condolences to the Williams family in the passing of their matriarch, Amanda “Mom” Williams.  She was 94 years old.

A guiding force in the lives of her ten children, she and her husband Leon “Pop” Williams (d. 1989) nurtured their musical talents at southern Mississippi’s Rose Hill Missionary Baptist Church. Sons Huey and Frank became members of The Jackson Southernaires. Frank eventually organized the Mississippi Mass Choir.  Leonard, Melvin, and Doug (along with family friend Henry Green) comprised The Williams Brothers.  Some of the other children entered the music field on the business side.

While there is sadness over “Mom” Williams’ transition, there most certainly must also be rejoicing over her blessed life and rich legacy.

Photo from Facebook profile of Linder Banks Williams