Willie Mae Ford Smith

Willie Mae Ford Smith (June 23, 1904 – February 2, 1994) was an American musician and Christian evangelist instrumental in the development and spread of gospel music in the United States.

She grew up singing with her family, joining a quartet with her sisters.

The Fords moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1917, and Mary started a restaurant where Willie Mae worked after dropping out of school in the eighth grade.

Her parents were devout Christians, her father a deacon in their church.

They fostered a love of singing, eventually encouraging Willie Mae and her sisters Mary, Emma, and Geneva to perform at their local church, True Light.

They enjoyed it so much they formed a singing quartet called the Ford Sisters.

Their reception at events, including the 1922 National Baptist Convention, was lukewarm.

In the early 20th century, music at urban black churches throughout the U.S. was formal and refined.

Choirs performed sophisticated material from classical European composers, like Handel and Mozart, more to show their musical abilities than reiterate a spiritual message through music.

Personalizing songs by improvising with melody, lyrics, and rhythm was generally not tolerated under the belief that it was common and undignified.

In this light, Smith later said that the National Baptist Convention "hadn't really accepted gospel".

As her sisters grew, married, and had families, Willie Mae continued as a soloist, even after her 1924 marriage to James Smith, a man 19 years her senior who owned a general hauling business.

James encouraged her to accept requests to sing in church, and expressed pride in her voice.

Willie Mae was a talented soprano who seriously considered a career in classical music.

However, at the 1926 National Baptist Convention, she heard a woman named Artelia Hutchins singing in a new style and changed her mind: "I knew then I had to be a gospel singer."

Having two children, Willie James and Jacquelyn, did not make her any less determined.

In 1930, Smith had an auspicious meeting with Thomas A. Dorsey, a blues musician who had attempted to make a living writing gospel music without success.

Two years before, Dorsey had a spiritual conversion after a bout of depression.

His downstairs neighbor, also a good friend, died unexpectedly, and both events inspired him to write "If You See My Savior, Tell Him That You Saw Me".

It was the first song Dorsey wrote that combined a blues structure to gospel lyrics.

Despite his best efforts, Dorsey found it impossible to sell his sheet music or break into the inner workings of Chicago's black churches.

As a blues singer, his involvement in a culture widely considered to be sinful would not have been well received in churches, particularly in a position of leadership, which he was seeking.

Dorsey thus had neither the time or interest in attending the National Baptist Convention in his home city of Chicago.

Though he had gone in previous years, Dorsey stayed home in 1930.

Smith traveled from St. Louis to the convention, with 15,000 attendees, and sang Dorsey's "If You See My Savior" to the general morning gathering.

Upon hearing her, the audience was greatly moved.

Later she became acquainted with Thomas A. Dorsey, the "Father of Gospel Music", when he co-founded the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses in 1932.

Smith started the St. Louis chapter and became the director of the national organization's Soloist's Bureau, training up and coming singers in the gospel blues style.

She became known for her nurturing temperament, leading to her commonly being called "Mother Smith" by those within her musical circle.

For a decade she traveled ceaselessly tutoring, singing, and preaching in churches and at revivals.

Her appearances were renowned for being intensely moving spiritual experiences.

A devout Christian, she rejected commercializing gospel music throughout her life, even during gospel's "golden age".

Smith chose to perform live and on the radio rather than record.

She was ordained as a minister and preached at a church in St. Louis, Missouri, for 30 years.

However, not until the 1980s did she become known to mainstream audiences.

She was the primary focus of the 1982 documentary film Say Amen, Somebody, about gospel singers in the U.S. Author Anthony Heilbut states, "her admirers and protégés are legion. This is simply the most influential female gospel singer of all time, and in the opinion of many, many fans, the greatest."

Born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, Willie Mae was the seventh of fourteen children of Clarence Ford, a railroad brakeman, and Mary Williams.

Soon after she was born, her family relocated to Memphis, Tennessee for her father's work.

Willie Mae became familiar with blues from hearing it coming from a disreputable clubhouse adjacent to her family's Memphis back yard when she was still a toddler.

Bar patrons tossed coins to hear her sing "Boll Weevil".