SG History 101

Oct

2008

SG History 101 - J.D. Sumner

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When a casual gospel music fan thinks of JD Sumner…

One thinks of as deep a bass voice as one can imagine, a tall man ending a song with a distinctive vocal slide from the dominant in a chord to the tonic, and a genuinely funny man who could have just as easily made as good a living as a stand up comic as he did a singer of gospel songs.

When a gospel music fan familiar with the music thinks of JD Sumner…

That fan will remember him from his legendary days with the Blackwood Brothers or the Stamps Quartet, or even the many years he and his Stamps Quartet sang backup vocals on stage and recordings for Elvis Presley, and getting the opportunity to sing gospel music before a larger audience than many other singers. That fans will also be aware of the fact that Sumner wrote over 700 gospel songs(many of which are still sung by gospel quartets today).

When people who are aware of gospel music history think of JD Sumner…

They recognize him as an outspoken innovator in the industry…a man who pushed for and originated the idea of private bus travel for gospel groups(an idea also implemented by traveling entertainers of ALL kinds), a man who helped organize the largest annual gathering of gospel singers(and is still the major annual event in the genre), and a man who tirelessly gave his time, talents, and energy to encourage and develop young talent in gospel music, and a man who dared to be honest about the industry he loved, and us his considerable influence and prestige to guide it to new heights of professionalism and stature within the entertainment world.

And if one really got to know JD Sumner well…

They would know a man who loved God above all else, and beneath a very human exterior, did everything he did publicly to further the cause of gospel music, and not merely his own career. They would realize they had the most loyal and caring friend a person could have, expressing his generosity in many and sundry ways.

What everyone who would come in contact with JD Sumner would know is that JD Sumner was an extremely talented and hard-working man who never took shortcuts on his way to being one of the most dynamic and influential men to ever sing and be involved in gospel music.

To paraphrase the original title of his autobiography, “Gospel Music was his life”. All of us who love gospel music ought to be grateful that JD Sumner devoted his life and career to it.

Since it was almost 10 years ago now that JD Sumner passed away (though in many ways it seems he’s never been gone), I feel it would be a good time to look back on the life and career of this unusual and talented man. Many of my past articles have focused on one area or another of his considerable influence on the gospel music industry….this month, I want to focus on the life and story of this genuine gospel music legend.

John Daniel Sumner was born to John S. and Leila Sumner on November 19, 1924 in Lakeland, Florida. He was the youngest of a family of four…two boys and two girls. Like many in that part of the country at that time, the Sumner family was not wealthy…in fact, to make money during the Depression years, they gathered moss to make money.

But like many in the rural South in those days, what they lacked in money, they made up for in love and family activities. Camp meetings were a favorite activity of the Sumners, and it was at those meetings that young JD got his first exposure to gospel music. It was at one of those Florida camp meetings that JD first heard famous gospel singer Frank Stamps sing. Young JD was so enamored by Stamps’ powerful bass voice that he got the urge to learn how to sing.

But once in high school, the tall, lanky JD became a basketball star…which helped take his mind off the drudgery of working at a fruit cannery. It was here that JD’s life would make a major leap forward.

JD met a girl…Mary Agnes Varnadore…while working at the cannery…and soon the two teenagers became inseparable. By the summer of 1941, when JD had to help his father farm the fields, he knew that Mary was going to be his lifetime love. So after getting his father’s permission, the 16-year old JD married the 17-year old Mary…and they stayed husband and wife for 51 years!

Soon JD would be drafted into the Army…there was a World War going on! But because of his flat feet, JD never saw combat duty. Instead he did duty at various army hospitals, and along the way, JD would sing and play gospel songs on his guitar for the other soldiers. JD was discharged on July 3. 1945 and went home to raise a family and start his life’s work.

For he and Mary adopted a daughter, Frances, in 1943 and a year later, birthed another daughter of their own, Shirley. JD would need to find a good job in order to raise his growing family.

JD had been singing since he was 11 in choirs and “scrap iron” quartets, and by the mid-1940s had developed a very fine bass voice of his own. By 1945 he had joined a quartet based in Tampa called the Sunny South Quartet, replacing departing bass singer Jim Wetherington(later known as “Big Chief” with the Statesmen Quartet).

The Sunny South Quartet would later morph into the Rebels Quartet, one of the top quartets of the 1950s and 1960s, but while they were still struggling in south central Florida, they split into two quartets. One of them relocated to Orlando, and JD stayed in Tampa with what became the Dixie Lily Harmoneers, eventually managing them until he left the quartet in 1949.

ca. 1949 with the Sunshine Boys (L-R): Eddie Wallace, JD, Ace Richman, and Fred Daniel

It was in 1949 that JD caught his first big break in gospel music. He was hired by the Sunshine Boys, who were transitioning from a combination of gospel quartet and western swing music into a full-fledged gospel quartet. Off went JD to Atlanta, and his joining the Sunshine Boys was the spark that helped that quartet rise quickly in the ranks of gospel music quartets.

JD was growing prodigously as a singer. Although he had the deep bass voice he would become famous for in subsequent years, that aspect of his voice was not as prominent with the Sunshine Boys as it would become in later years. The Sunshine Boys were members of the Jamboree troupe that was heard on 50,000 watt Wheeling, WV radio station WWVA in those days, and their popularity there was such that for the first time in his life, JD was making a decent living singing. JD seemed to have found a comfortable career niche with the Sunshine Boys.

1954-first picture of the reorganized Blackwood Brothers with JD(L-R): Bill Shaw, James Blackwood, Cecil Blackwood, and JD

But in June 1954, the famous Blackwood Brothers gospel quartet was decimated by their tragic plane crash that killed baritone singer R.W. Blackwood and bass Bill Lyles. JD recalled having a premonition at that time that that event would have a major impact on his life. Boy, did it ever!

When James Blackwood sought a replacement for Lyles, he was told by nearly everybody he talked to that JD was the perfect bass for the job. But because there were personality conflicts between the Blackwoods and the Sunshine Boys, JD was reluctant to accept James’ job offers. The persistent Blackwood would not give up…feeling that it was God’s will that he hire JD.

JD finally accepted Blackwood’s offer after being offered part ownership of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet. At that time, the Blackwoods and the Statesmen Quartets were the top quartets in gospel music, each drawing upwards of $250K a year in revenue. So just short of his 30th birthday, JD was a full member and partner of the Blackwood Brothers Quartet.

By then, JD had begun to write songs. With constant prodding by Blackwood, JD became a songwriting machine, turning out song after song that would fill up Blackwood Brothers’ albums. Songs like “When I’m Alone”, “Wonderful Love”, and “God Made A Way” would become gospel quartet standards, not just for the Blackwoods, but for all the gospel quartets of the time.

Over time, JD would write close to 700 songs, including “I’ve Got To Walk That Lonesome Road”, “Aloha Time”, and “I Can Feel The Touch Of His Hand”. Many of JD’s songs are still being recorded and performed by gospel artists yet today.

That was just the beginning.

By 1955, JD wondered why gospel quartets continued to travel to their venues in seven-passenger limousines pulling a trailer. He had seen and heard of singers using larger vehicles to get from event to event, and he persistently urged James Blackwood to buy a bus and fix it up for quartet travel. Blackwood relented, and in 1955 the group bought a bus and JD fixed it up for travel. And other quartets soon followed JD’s example and got buses as well…and now, it’s pretty much standard operating for entertainers of all kinds of genres.

In 1956, JD also developed an idea for all gospel music artists to convene at one multi-day venue, and network and fellowship together. This idea became a reality a year later, and today, the National Quartet Convention(as it became known)is still the leading annual event in the gospel music genre.

And JD was starting to develop confidence on stage to include his charming sense of humor. With the Blackwoods, JD would be featured on special comedy routines and specialty songs to demonstrate his amazing vocal range. With songs like “Wonderful Love” and “Something Old, Something New”, JD began to feature the extreme depths of his voice, and by the early 1960s, became billed as the “world’s lowest bass singer”.

With JD, the Blackwood Brothers reached their highest level of popularity in their long career. And since JD’s compositions and stage presence were primarily responsible for this level of popularity, JD was not only becoming famous in gospel music, he was starting to become well-known in other musical genres as well. The Blackwood name and association undoubtedly helped JD become famous, but there can’t be any serious doubt that JD’s singing, songwriting, and business acumen helped raise the level of the Blackwood Brothers’ popularity as well.

But in 1963, the Blackwood Brothers organization bought the Stamps Quartet and their associated publishing company, and this would lead to another change in JD Sumner’s life as well.

JD took on the challenge of helping the Stamps Quartet get back up to the top of the gospel music world. But the quartet struggled for a while after being reorganized, and it was finally decided that to keep the Stamps Quartet from draining the Blackwood company dry, some changes needed to be made.

So in 1965, JD swapped places with “Big” John Hall, the Stamps’ bass singer…putting him in the Stamps and Hall in the Blackwood Brothers. With JD again being the spark, the Stamps Quartet’s fortunes turned quickly…and soon they became one of the industry’s top quartets. JD was singing lower than ever, and his stage savvy enabled the Stamps to prosper magnificently.

In 1967, the Stamps Quartet’s recording of “Blessed Assurance” featured JD concluding a bass solo by hitting “double low C”(three octaves below middle C)and earning recognition in the Guinness Book of World Records for the lowest bass note yet recorded to that point. JD had numerous challenges to his unofficial title of "world’s lowest bass singer”(most notably London Parris of the Rebels), but he remained “King of the Hill” in that regard for many years.

Along the way, JD began the practice(standard today)of using a mike for each singer on stage. As with JD’s many other innovations, soon every other gospel group did the same thing. The Stamps quickly became pacesetters in taking gospel quartet music to a younger audience(along with the Oak Ridge Boys and the Imperials), and by 1970, the Stamps became enough of a force in gospel music to go into a new stage in JD’s life.

Because JD by 1970 was involved in a LOT of business activities(including the NQC and one of the very first gospel music talent agencies), he began to be concerned that he wasn’t able to continue to travel and sing with the quartet on a full-time basis. So in 1970, JD hired Richard Sterban to be the regular bass singer in the Stamps, relegating himself to “special attraction” status.

In 1971, longtime friend Elvis Presley(who JD knew from Elvis’ teenage days in Memphis, where he would allow Elvis free access to the Blackwood Brothers’ shows)picked JD and the Stamps to replace the Imperials as his regular male backup vocal group. Elvis would feature the Stamps on stage with him for the most part until his untimely death in 1977.

Shortly after, JD disbanded the Stamps primarily due to his daughter Shirley’s divorce from lead singer Ed Enoch. JD was a singer without a group for a short time in the early 1980s until he teamed up with fellow gospel legends Hovie Lister, Jake Hess, James Blackwood, and Rosie Rosell to form the Masters V, a sort of living gospel music museum. That group of legends sang together for most of the 1980s, when after the other legends dropped out one-by-one, JD changed the name of the quartet back to the Stamps at the NQC of 1988.

ca. 1992-The Stamps Quartet(L-R): Steve Warren, CJ Almgren, Ed Enoch, JD, Ed Hill

The Stamps soldiered on for a few more years. In addition, JD had the group join a number of tribute shows to Elvis Presley. Because of that recognition, it’s arguable that the Stamps were one of the best-known gospel groups in the entire world…and certainly with Elvis, they sang gospel music to more people around the world that most other quartets could ever dream of doing.

Tragedy struck JD in 1992 when his wife of 51 years, Mary, died of cancer. Even this would not keep JD from singing and touring wherever he could. Perhaps at this point, singing meant more to JD than it ever had in his life. For he still had that, after his parents and wife all left this world.

JD had first written his autobiography in 1971, “Gospel Music Is My Life” with writer Bob Terrell. After Mary’s death, he and Terrell rewrote and updated the book, changing the title to “The Life And Times Of JD Sumner”. That book is now out of print as well, but if you find a copy of it, you’ll see JD’s colorful life story told in his own words…a “must-read” for any serious gospel music fan.

Also, in the 1990s, JD had a regular column in the Singing News (later in the Gospel Voice Magazine as well), called “I Can’t Wait”, chock full of JD’s outspoken opinions and laced with his trademark humor. Those articles are well worth reading even today.

Later still, JD began to be a fixture on Bill Gaither’s “Homecoming” shows and videos, where his deep love for gospel music and the people in it were spotlighted in new and compelling ways. His friendships with Mark Lowry and George Younce were very important to him at that stage of his life.

Finally, on November 16, 1998, while on tour, JD was stricken with a heart attack and passed away. Such was the breadth of his life that not only were many gospel music personalities part of his funeral, but several Elvis Presley impersonators attended as well.
JD Sumner was a multi-faceted, multi-talented man who changed gospel music forever. His influence on the genre is still immense…and as I said earlier in this article, it’s in many ways as though he’s still among us. He is certainly a major contributor to the life of this author, who discovered gospel music primarily because of his singing.

But perhaps even more than a singer, JD Sumner was an industry innovator, a courageous and independent thinker, a prolific songwriter, and an encourager and developer of young talent(do the names Richard Sterban, Tony Brown, Jimmy Blackwood, and Mylon LeFevre mean anything to you?)…all these singers were trained and guided by JD Sumner, and have risen to the top in their professions. JD was also a dynamic live performer who thrilled and blessed audiences with his humor and great bass singing.

But finally, more than that, JD Sumner was a friend. The late London Parris told me personally once that if he were ever in any kind of serious difficulty and could only call on one person to help him, that person would be JD Sumner…quite a statement from one who was not only one of JD’s best friends, but one of his most prominent professional rivals.

It may have been 10 years since JD Sumner went to that home in glory he sang about in song for so many years, but his impact is such that he will never be forgotten. While I tried to sum up JD’s life in one article, as I conclude, I realize how futile that endeavor is.

I hope you enjoyed this look back on the life and times of JD Sumner…a true gospel music legend. Again my thanks go out to Dean Adkins for his help in the preparation of this article.

Reader Comments

Thank you for a very good article on J.D. Sumner, John. I first heard J.D. with The Blackwood Brothers at The Shrine Mosque in Springfield,Missouri in late 1954 or early 1955, and J.D. and Cecil Blackwood were both new members.

Commented by On 10/07/2008

Another touching article on one of my heroes of the faith. You're the best, John; we are all blessed by your knowledge, skill and hard work.

Tony Partigianoni

http://www.ksgm.com/images/gospel.gif

Pure SGM & Quartet-Style Singing
http://www.ksgm.com

Commented by Tony On 10/08/2008

Thanks for a great article on a wonderful man. I loved J.D. & miss him a lot.

God is good all the time & all the time God is good.

Elaine Harcourt

Commented by On 10/08/2008

As always you do a superb job on these history articles pertaing to SG artist. As far as I'm concerned, without any authority of any kind I want to appoint you as the SG Historian ! Everyone know however, with my opinion and a dollar bill, you can buy a cup of coffee [in MS. anyway]. Keep up the great work.

Commented by On 10/08/2008

This was just an excellent article, John. I learned a lot that I didn't know about J.D. I was shocked at the amount of money that the Blackwood Brothers (and the Statesmen)were bringing in, back in the mid 50's! $250,000 a year for a gospel quartet, more than 50 years ago, is mind boggling.

Thanks for continuing to give us history lessons on the music that we love best.

Commented by On 10/20/2008

Great Article! Dave Rowland of the Country Music group "Dave and Sugar" was the baritone for a while in the 70's

Commented by On 10/31/2008

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