Let's Talk: GMG Tribute to Mother Willie Mae Ford Smith

Mother Willie Mae Ford was one be pronounced “one of the most important gospel singers of the century” by The New York Times.  She influenced such singers as Mahalia Jackson and Brother Joe May. Willie Mae, Mary, Emma, and Geneva— the Ford Sisters Quartet, a gospel group that performed around the Midwest throughout the early 1920s. From 1936 until the late 1980s, she served as director of the convention’s Soloist Bureau, evaluating, coaching, and influencing a who’s who of gospel singers: Roberta Martin, Mahalia Jackson, Edna Gallmon Cooke, Martha Bass, Myrtle Scott, the O’Neal Twins, and Brother Joe May.  Appeared at the 1972 Newport Jazz Festival singing Gospel which resurged her recording career at the age of 67.   One of the featured women in Brian Lanker’s I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America 1989. •You may also “like” and share the episode. And you may Subscribe so you will be alerted when the newest show is published. If you have any questions or comments about this episode, please send an email to: [email protected]