2005

SG History 101 - Don Smith

In gospel music, as in life, the true heroes are not always those with the most fame or acclaim. Rather, they are the ones that did their very best with what they were given, and along the way, impacted a great number of people due to their efforts.

It is with that idea of a gospel music hero I submit this article this month about a true gospel music hero to me, Don Smith…a singer, businessman, promoter, and most of all, family man and role model.

Don was born April 30, 1915 in Plainview, Texas…the youngest boy in a family of seven children. His father was a miller who later worked on the Santa Fe Railroad, then bought a dairy near Lubbock with 100 cows, which he and his three sons milked twice a day. Young Don began milking at the age of 11. He recalled later, about those days, saying, “If I ever get out of this dairy, I’ll never look at another cow!” Thus the physical strength and determination that would be characteristic of Don were formed on that dairy, amongst those cows.

But the most life-changing event in Don’s life came at that same age of eleven, when after a revival meeting at the Southside Baptist Church of Lubbock, he walked down the altar with his sister Evelyn, and gave his life to the Lord. It was that simple decision to submit to the Lord that would be the major guide for the rest of his life.

When Don grew into his teens, singing conventions were the rage in Texas. And on the radio, V.O. Stamps’ radio programs caught Don’s ears. At that time, Don told his mother, “I’m going to be a gospel singer, just like V.O. Stamps.” Then, at a Sunday singing at Lubbock’s Central Baptist Church, Don’s voice, which by that time had become a strong bass, was noticed by the pastor there, who taught him a number of songs to sing. After performing “Wayfaring Stranger” one Sunday morning, Don became the regular church soloist, singing a solo every week.

In time, veteran gospel singer and Stamps Music Company representative Odis “Pop” Echols came to Lubbock to teach a singing school. He immediately noticed Don, and began to direct him toward joining one of his professional groups. At first, Don resisted, staying home and attending Texas Tech briefly. But eventually, he relented, and accepted Echols’ offer to join the Echols Singers, and his gospel music career began.

The Echols Singers were a talented group…they featured a tenor singer who would go on to become quite famous with the Rangers Quartet and the Statesmen, an Arkansas native named Denver Crumpler. Denver and Don quickly struck up a close friendship, and were roommates when the group took to the road. To pass the time, sometimes the two would wrestle, just to have some fun. One night though, Don, who was quite strong due to his childhood of milking cows, got Denver in a bear hug, and Crumpler suddenly passed out. Don was stricken with fright, thinking he’d killed Denver, who lay unconscious on the floor. That fear lasted until Denver finally regained his consciousness, and came to.

Don sang with the Echols Singers for a year and a half…with his solid bass work, and Crumpler’s peerless tenor voice, the group became quite popular. In 1936, though, Don met a woman and married, and because he was homesick for her on road trips, left the group to return to Lubbock and run a milk route for his father.

A year later, Echols offered Don a job with the Stamps Melody Boys (the predecessors to today’s Melody Boys) in Arkansas, and Don took his wife with him to Arkansas to once again sing for “Pop”. Unfortunately, his marriage crumbled in Arkansas, and even though they had a son together there, he and his wife divorced, and Don became very depressed as a result. Nonetheless, Don stayed with the group as it moved to Nashville and then to Louisville. But because of his depression, his health began to suffer, and he was forced to leave the quartet and return again to Lubbock.

A short time later, Don moved to San Diego, CA to live with his sister, and began working with Consolidated Aircraft there during World War II. Though it seemed he had left gospel singing far behind, it seemed that God had other ideas.

One Sunday afternoon, Don was driving by an Assembly of God church in downtown San Diego. He soon noticed a big car drive up to the church and “three little men with hats” got out. Don recognized them as the Blackwood Brothers, who he got to know while in Arkansas. They recognized Don as well, so Don pulled over and renewed old times with the Blackwoods. They were there to work in the aircraft industry as well during the war. James invited Don to sing with them at the church that night. After rehearsal and the service, Don officially joined the Blackwood Brothers Quartet…the first non-Blackwood to be hired as a singer for the group. It would be the start of a five-year career with one of the top groups in gospel music.

Don had been singing with the Blackwood Brothers for two years when he went to a Christmas service at the San Diego Tabernacle, and noticed a young lady playing an angel. He could not take his eyes off this “angel”…eventually they met, and fell in love. Don wasn’t sure he’d marry again after his first experience, but in August of 1945, Don would marry this “angel” whose name was Peggy, and for the next 41 years they would be an inseparable couple.

When the war ended, the Blackwood Brothers returned to Shenandoah, Iowa…where they had been based prior to the war. Don soon determined that he and Peggy were not cut out for the winters of Iowa, and they began to miss California. After a year in Iowa, Don resigned from the Blackwoods and took Peggy back to San Diego with him.

What would Don do now? He had turned his back on a good salary and a great future with a group who was destined to become the most popular quartet in gospel music. But Don was always a family man first, and he trusted that God would provide for him and his family-to-be.

Sure enough, Don bought a washing machine rental business and began to do well in business. And he also resumed singing with a group he put together called the Sunnyside Gospelaires. His group ended up with three radio programs a day in San Diego, selling records and songbooks as well. Their big song in those days was Marshall Pack’s “Mail Order From God”, which also was a big number for the Blackwood Brothers. Don was off and running in California.

After a year in San Diego, Don got a call from Bob Jones, another singer from Lubbock originally that Don had met in San Diego during the war. Jones had a group in Fresno that he needed a bass singer for, and invited Don to join him. Selling him on the idea that the people of central California were “starved” for good quartet music, Don was convinced, and took Peggy with him to Fresno.

The group that Jones invited Don to join was called the Harmony Boys, and they had a daily program on Fresno’s largest station, KMJ. But just two months after Don joined, Jones was offered a job with Frank Stamps’ quartet in Texas, and he took it.

Jones eventually returned to California and formed a group called the Songfellows, which he still sings with today at the age of 91! Jones became quite a force in establishing gospel music in Southern California, and many credit he and promoter Polly Grimes with establishing the gospel “industry”, such as it was, in California. But at all times, both Jones and Grimes worked closely with Don Smith.

Back to Don…he now was the leader of what he and Jones hoped to be the“finest quartet” in California. At the same time, Don had established a record and music store in Fresno, which he used at times to press records for gospel artists (including the Blackwood Brothers, Melody Boys, and eventually, the Gospel Harmony Boys), and offered discounts on musical instruments to churches, and also sold TVs once they became available. The store (which Don named Gospel Music and Supply because of his insistence that he be identified with gospel music) grew so fast it quickly outgrew its’ downtown facilities, and had to relocate in another part of Fresno.

Don and Jones’ replacement, Barney Welch, meanwhile, tried to keep Jones’ original quartet intact, but the burden of operating both the quartet and the store became too much for the men, who decided to resolve the situation by a coin flip…one would get the quartet, the other, the store. Welch won the quartet, and Don won the store.

But, alas, the quartet was falling out of favor with KMJ, because it recorded poor quality transcriptions for its’ broadcasts in Modesto. The KMJ management offered Don a live show replacing Welch’s quartet if he could put a group together by that Sunday. Don found some people (the talented Daniels family), christened his new group the Gospelaires, and got the time slot.

Don would have daily radio programs on KMJ, and two more on Sunday from that point (Oct. 1947) until 1968, when he went to a single program on Sundays only. That Sunday program remains on KMJ to this very day, transitioning over the years from live music in the studio to recordings, and remaining a KMJ programming staple for all those years, hosted today by Don’s daughter Earline and this writer.

Over the years, the Gospelaires would endure personnel changes common to all gospel groups, and featured performers such as Don’s son Ron Smith, James Farmer (a Gospelaires mainstay for nearly 40 years), Ray Cooper, Danny Pollard, and a fine tenor from the Midwest, George Melton.

Don eventually “retired” from the quartet in 1983, only making occasional appearances with them afterward. Ron Smith took over the group, bringing in his wife Anita, his son Guy, and a very talented pianist/songwriter in Ken Hurley. This version of the Gospelaires sang into the early 90s.

Don was also very encouraging to gospel talent that arose on the West Coast. Working with people like Polly Grimes and Ralph Dean, he brought many of the nation’s top gospel groups to central California, such as the Happy Goodmans, the Couriers, the Oak Ridge Boys, and Don was also instrumental in getting the career of the Hinsons (who were from Salinas, just 100 miles NW of Fresno) established in the early 1970s. Don also brought his old group, the Blackwood Brothers, here numerous times as well. He always remained in contact with and was admired by many in the gospel music business.

Don’s store, Gospel Music And Supply, continued to flourish into the 80s. For many years, it provided people throughout California with fine service and was always a place where churches could come and get their musical needs met, whether it be with sheet music, instruction, instruments, or whatever. And people who wanted the best selection of gospel recordings could buy them there as well (I can vouch for this personally!).

First and foremost, Don was a loving family man. He was the proud father of his son Ron, and two attractive and talented daughters, Earline and Renee. He lost his dear Peggy in 1986 in an auto accident (which he barely survived himself), which caused him sorrow, but characteristically, he pressed on. He remarried a fine woman named Inez several years later, and it was Inez who gave him joy and comfort in his final days.

In the 1990s, Don began to contract Alzheimer’s Disease, which slowly debilitated him in his final years. He remained on his radio program until 1997, when the ravages of the disease rendered him unable to continue it.

To the end, though, Don loved to sing, he loved his family, and he loved gospel music. Unfortunately, he was not able to see the Great Western Southern Gospel Fan Festival (the successor to the Great Western Quartet Convention) when it finally returned to Fresno in 2003, and shortly after the 2004 convention, on June 9th, Don Smith went to join his Lord in heaven.

Don Smith remains a gospel music hero…a fine singer, a good promoter, a successful businessman, and most of all, a good husband, father, friend, and role model for countless people he encountered in his 89 years on earth. It is to his memory and his family that this article is dedicated.

I also wish to thank Herb Henry for compiling the information in this article, and Don’s oldest daughter Earline, for her generous time and contributions, and for the pictures used in this article.