WIllie Mae Ford Smith - 1975 LP - from Say Amen Somebody Film - Black Gospel
$
36
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Description
WIllie Mae Ford SMith- Going On With the Spirit - 1975 LP - Black Gospel.
Willie Mae Ford Smith obituary
Willie Mae Ford Smith, a pioneering gospel singer, died on Wednesday at the Tower Village Nursing Home in St. Louis. She was 89.
The cause was congestive heart failure, said Anthony Heilbut, a friend and her recording producer.
Mother Smith, as she was widely known, was one of the first singers to perform in the blues-influenced gospel style created by Thomas A. Dorsey in the 1920's and 30's. Her deep contralto and flamboyant vocal flights made her a leading performer of the 1930's and 40's, and she was a major influence on singers like Mahalia Jackson.
Willie Mae Ford was born in Rolling Fork, Miss., 1 of 14 children in a musical family. She moved to St. Louis at the age of 12, and sang with family members in the Ford Sisters. In 1927, she married James Peter Smith and began a career as a soloist.
She started working with Dorsey's National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses in the early 1930's, and she became the director of the convention's Soloist's Bureau, evaluating and training gospel singers until the late 1980's. During the 1930's and 40's, she constantly toured the Midwest with her adopted daughter, Bertha, as accompanist. But while her style and showmanship were widely imitated, she did not make her first recording until 1950. She later recorded albums for the Nashboro, Savoy and Spirit Feel labels.
In 1972 she began to receive national recognition after an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival. She appeared in the 1981 gospel documentary film "Say Amen, Somebody," and received a National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1988. She continued to perform regularly at the Lively Stone Apostolic Church in St. Louis until the early 1990's.
She is survived by her sisters Emma, Geneva and Georgie; a daughter, Jacqueline; a son, William; four grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, all of St. Louis
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