2005

SG History 101 - Plane Crash

This month, I want to focus on what ought to be a red-letter day for fans of gospel music. Over time, the date June 30, 1954 arguably has the same impact in gospel music history as December 7, 1941 has on followers of American history. Even 51 years later, there are many fans of gospel music that can still recall what happened on that day.

I contend that the events that resulted from what happened that day have affected gospel music to the present, and in some respects are continuing to affect gospel music.

The 1954 Blackwood Brothers Quartet boarding their plane L to R: RW Blackwood (holding door), James Blackwood, Jack Marshall, Bill Shaw, and Bill Lyles

That day, the Blackwood Brothers Quartet arrived by airplane into Clanton, Alabama to sing with the Statesmen Quartet at the airport hangar there as a commemorative event to help celebrate the annual Chilton County Peach festival.

The Blackwood Brothers at that time were at the pinnacle of their career…earlier that month, they had achieved nationwide fame and notoriety by their appearance on the very popular Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts television program, where they had won the talent competition the night they appeared. Their 45 RPM single of the songs they sang on the show, “The Man Upstairs” b/w “How About Your Heart” was selling briskly at that time. They were the first gospel group to perform on national TV, and were reaping the benefits of that appearance.

Just two years prior, in 1952, the Blackwood Brothers had formed a professional partnership with the Statesmen, and it was working out for good for both groups by that time. The popularity that each group enjoyed was also unprecedented for a gospel singing group. Together, their “team” was the top attraction in gospel music by far at that time.

It seemed that the sky was the limit for the Blackwood Brothers. Sadly, they were soon to learn how true that indeed was.

1954 Blackwood Brothers posing in front of their plane
L-R: James Blackwood, RW Blackwood, Jack Marshall, Bill Shaw, Bill Lyles

It was also in 1952 that the Blackwood Brothers had decided to use an airplane to get to their concerts, reasoning that that means of travel would be much more convenient and less fatiguing than riding in the large automobiles that they and other gospel groups were using as their main means of transportation. The time they saved flying allowed them to spend more time with their families in Memphis, Tennessee. Baritone R.W. Blackwood was the group’s pilot, and bass Bill Lyles was the navigator and co-pilot.

On the day of the concert, R.W. decided it would be prudent to conduct an afternoon test flight, since the runway was narrow and had no lights, and it would be dark when the group left Clanton to return to Memphis. The usual practice in those days was to have cars turn on their headlights to illuminate the runways of such airports so pilots could see where they needed to go.

R.W. and Bill would have a passenger for their test ride…18-year old Johnny Ogburn, the son of the Festival’s director, had his parents’ permission to ride with them.

After the initial safety checks were done, the plane took off without any problems…as they circled the airport, the direction of the wind had ominously changed…and the people who had assembled to watch them looked on in surprise when they noticed that the plane was coming in to land on the opposite end of the runway where they were planning to take off that night.

On the approach, there was a hill the plane needed to clear to land on the runway safely…after numerous attempts to clear the hill safely to land without success, R.W. tried once more. On his last attempt, the plane’s engine stalled. As R.W. fought to get the plane under control, it suddenly dived straight upward before the engine finally stopped.

The gathered crowd below was becoming more anxious at the plane struggled, and when the engine stalled and the plane came hurtling down toward the runway, they gasped in collective fright as they watched the inevitable result.

The plane hit the ground with a sickening thud and burst into flames immediately. As it did, James Blackwood saw R.W. still strapped in his pilot’s seat, and in panic, rushed toward the plane in an effort to save his nephew and the others.

Attempts at rescue would have been futile, since there was so much fire engulfing the plane. Still, James was determined to do what he could, endangering himself in order to try to get to the bodies that were being burned in the wreckage. As James drew nearer to R.W., he felt someone pick him up and literally carry him to safety. James’ cries of “Let me go!” were not heeded, and his frantic kicks and efforts to escape were to no avail.

Years later, James would learn that it was Jake Hess who had physically removed him from the scene, and Jake’s reward for his heroism was a sore and badly bruised body from the struggle.

All three passengers of the plane perished. Autopsies revealed that R.W.’s and Bill’s necks were broken immediately on impact, and Bill’s body was found under the plane’s instrument panel, while R.W.’s remained strapped in the pilot’s seat.

News of the crash spread quickly. Walter Winchell brought the news to his audience right away, as did CBS radio and television, along with Arthur Godfrey. America was in shock at the news.

It was left to Hess to deliver the sad news back to James’ family and pastor in Memphis…and then, to take James back home to Memphis.

James Blackwood was in unspeakable grief and shock. All the way home, through a continuing mask of tears, he told Hovie Lister and the other members of the Statesmen (in whose car James was going home to Memphis) that he would not sing again…that he could not go on as a result of the tragedy. Lister tried to give James as much courage as he could, calmly reminding James that he was loved and that life must go on for the living.

The grief of gospel music fans was almost as great as James’…the funeral for R.W. and Lyles was held at the Ellis Auditorium in Memphis…and the crowd of some 3,000 + mourners made even that fine auditorium seem tiny. And significantly, although they sat in a separate section from the majority of the mourners, the number of black people in attendance was large…and striking. It was a testament to the universal appeal of gospel music and its’ message to all people, regardless of social position or skin color.

Fortunately, the group had not scheduled any more concerts for a two month period. This allowed James time to ponder what to do next. It didn’t take him long to decide that he would indeed go on…that the Blackwood Brothers Quartet would keep on singing.

There was one engagement left to fulfill, in Fort Worth, Texas. James gathered tenor Bill Shaw and pianist Jack Marshall, and with the help of R.W.’s younger brother Cecil, and the Statesmen’s bass singer, Jim “Big Chief” Wetherington, the group made it through that concert. Wetherington and Kent Higginbotham, bass singer with Cecil’s part-time quartet, the Songfellows, filled in at various times during the period of transition, as did Cecil himself.

(circa 1956) James flanked by JD Sumner and Cecil Blackwood

Then, James had to find permanent replacements for R.W. and Lyles. The baritone opening was relatively easy to fill…Cecil was R.W.’s brother, and he was avalable. Cecil became the group’s new baritone, and would remain so for the next 46 years, eventually, upon James’ eventual retirement, becoming the manager of the Blackwood Brothers.

But who would sing bass? James asked the opinions of those closest to him, and one name became prominent quickly, though it was not the one James first thought of. The Sunshine Boys were another popular group of the period, and they had a talented bass singer named JD Sumner. James said years later that Sumner’s name just “kept coming up”, and though he didn’t think Sumner would be a good fit (he sounded nothing like Lyles), he began to believe that God was becoming involved in his replacement choice. With that idea in mind, James relentlessly offered Sumner the job, despite getting applicants far and wide from elsewhere (given the Blackwoods’ stature and popularity, this was no surprise). James was convinced that God wanted JD Sumner to sing bass for the Blackwood Brothers, and he would not take “no” for an answer.

“No” was indeed JD’s first response…since he was happy and content with the Sunshine Boys…but as James persisted, JD’s resistance quickly began to fade, and when James made JD an offer he could not refuse (part ownership in the quartet), JD finally accepted. JD Sumner became the Blackwood Brothers’ new bass singer.

(circa 1955 or so) L-R: Bill Shaw, James Blackwood, Cecil Blackwood, JD Sumner

And what a hire that was…almost immediately after JD joined the group, he gave the group a new stage presence, and a whole brace of new song material. JD wrote songs, which was a skill he had that was not encouraged by the Sunshine Boys, but with James Blackwood doing the prodding, JD’s creativity came bursting out. Sumner wrote over 700 songs during his Hall of Fame career, and the vast majority of them were written during his 11 years with the Blackwood Brothers. For part of that time, the Blackwood Brothers’ albums almost featured JD’s songs exclusively.

Also, not to be overlooked, James took a bigger role as MC during personal appearances of the group…and his stage personality became more powerful and had more of an impact upon audiences than ever before…and the strength of his voice seemed to grow proportionately!

Two other aspects of Sumner’s came to the fore during his time with the Blackwood Brothers. JD was an innovative, visionary thinker…he had ideas about group transportation and the gospel industry as a whole. With the Blackwood Brothers, he was in a position to put those ideas into practice that he was not before. About a year after he joined the group, he persuaded James that traveling by custom bus would be the way to go for a gospel quartet…and in 1955, the Blackwood Brothers became the first organization in all of entertainment, gospel or secular, to use a bus as its’ primary means of transportation! The Statesmen soon followed, and eventually, the bus became the standard form of transportation for most all entertainers…certainly for gospel singers!

(circa 1955) JD Sumner with his wife Mary

A year after that, Sumner conceived an idea for an annual talent convention for gospel singers…to encourage fellowship and cooperation between artists, and to give fans a chance to see all their favorite singers in one place in an annual gala event! In 1957, that dream became reality as the National Quartet Convention was formed, and remains gospel music’s premier annual event today!

And for the Blackwood Brothers and Sumner, JD’s joining the group was musically fortuitous as well. Not merely because of JD’s original songs, but because of JD’s well-deep bass voice…which became such a staple of the Blackwood Brothers sound. If possible, the quartet became more popular than it was before the crash. Symbolically perhaps, the quartet’s first appearance with Cecil and JD was August 5, 1954 in the still flame-scarred airport runway in Clanton, Alabama where the group’s career threatened to come to an end!

Further evidence that the group was all the way back, and then some, was when they returned to the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts show once more in September, 1956…and won the talent competition again! The Blackwood Brothers were back…on top, as they were just two short years before!

Sumner would go on to revitalize the Stamps Quartet in 1965, and become even more well-known as the “world’s lowest bass singer” as he and his group backed Elvis Presley on stage during the last five years of that superstar’s life. And Sumner would continue to be a leading figure in the gospel music world all the way up to his untimely death in 1998…and even today, the legend of JD Sumner still looms large over the world of gospel music.

Would JD Sumner have achieved what he did if he had not become a member of the Blackwood Brothers? That question is certainly a matter of discussion…but it’s arguable that had JD not enjoyed the profile he did as a member of the top quartet in gospel music (at least in terms of income and recording popularity), he might not have made quite the impact he did on gospel music as a whole.

And what of the Blackwood Brothers? How did they fare following the tragedy? Well, their record sales remained strong…only the Chuck Wagon Gang has sold more recordings than the Blackwood Brothers among gospel groups. And the level of popularity in the gospel singing business lasted for another two decades following the crash…fading finally in the 1980s when the industry had finally changed too much for the group to keep pace. Because James Blackwood had the faith and determination to carry on despite the tragedy, gospel music is richer historically and spiritually because of the example that James Blackwood put forth.

And there are other questions one could ponder as well as a result of the tragedy…for example, one of the bass singers that auditioned for the vacant job in 1954 was a young man named George Younce. Had Younce been hired, would there have been a Cathedral Quartet a decade later to enrich the history of gospel music?

All these “what if” questions are impossible to answer, of course, but there is no doubt that the plane crash of June 30, 1954 was a momentous event for all of gospel music…then, and yet today!

The tragedy “shook up” many in the world of gospel music…but because of the faith and determination of James Blackwood, the talents of James and JD Sumner, and the God-given characteristics of all involved, wonderful gospel music came our way…despite the horrible tragedy.

June 30, 1954, then, should be remembered by all gospel music fans…not only because of the voices that were stilled because of the plane crash, but because of the music and lessons we all can learn from it!