Chapter Seven

Gospel Singing

 by Cecil L. Pierce

Pages 57-60

<Photo in this section: "Snow Community Singers"; Ewell Doshier, R A Young, Audrice Stonecipher, Cecil Pierce, Auburn Keeter; Pg 59>

 First, I wish to go back to the first singing school teacher that I know of Marion County. There may have been others at the same time of which I never heard

In the Fall of 1868, a family from Forsythe County, Georgia, settled in Marion County, in what is now known as the Snow community. This was the family of Bayless Taylor (known as Uncle Bale Taylor). Mr. Taylor was a great singer, and taught many singing schools in the communities of what is now Pyatt, Snow, Cedar Grove and Eros. My Grandfather Pierce's family, also from Forsythe County, Georgia, came to Marion County in the Fall of 1870 and settled in the same neighborhood as the Taylors two years before. My Grandfather and Grandmother were also good singers and they were acquainted with the Taylors before they left Georgia. Both families had brought along a few song books entitled "THE CHRISTIAN HARMONY". At that time there were very few, if any, churchhouses or places to meet in the community, so they would all meet in some of the larger homes and sing until midnight.

Before the Marion County Singing Convention was organized in 1933, Singing Conventions were held in the county, irregularly. Most of these were held in late summer, usually at the close of a singing school.

The singing teachers, most of whom Heavy has mentioned, would teach a ten or twenty-day school and close with a big community singing. These schools were day schools, starting at 8A.M. and ending at 4 P.M. with fifteen minutes for a break in mid-morning and mid-afternoon and an hour for lunch. This was like a regular school; some teachers would charge tuition which was one dollar per student or five dollars for a family, regardless of the number in the family; some teachers would teach for a certain price and the community would raise the money by donation; others would teach for the proceeds of a pie supper. Most of the good teachers would charge tuition.

Most of the singing was without instrumental music. The teachers and leaders had "tuning forks" which would give the key of C. The students would run the scale from C to the key that the song was written. Later, however, the "Chromatic Tuning Fork" came into being. This would give you the pitch in any key by sliding a bar, which was between the prongs, up or down to the specified key.

The first singing school I attended was in 1919 at Antioch for ten days with Charlie Koonzie as the teacher. In 1920, 1 attended a 20-day school at Duren Valley. The teacher was George Brown, who was blind in one eye, near-sighted in the other, but really knew his music and was an outstanding teacher. There were no pianos in our community and very few organs, so we seldom had the chance to sing with music.

At the close of Mr. Brown's school, the class attended a convention at the Chapel near Eros. People came in wagons, on horseback, on foot, and brought their lunches and stayed all day. There was a large crowd so most of the people spread their lunches together at noon. Only a few ate at their wagons.

The morning session was group singing and the afternoon session was given to individual community groups. Weeks of practice and preparation were spent before the "big convention."

After the Marion County Singing Convention was organized, the community classes gave way to group singing with quartets (the favorite), trios and solos spaced throughout the program. Marion County produced several good quartets and many of these became very popular. Some that I can name that have continued to sing together for a period of time are: The Eros Quartet-Guy Rose, Karl King, Grady Elam, Binum Roberts with Faye King as pianist. The Caney Quartet-Everett Williams, Ancil Baker, Errett Williams, and Ray Róbison. The Marion County Quartet-(A few .years later) Holland Davenport, Garland James, Marie Dillard and Ray Robison. After Garland James left the county, Cecil Pierce joined this group. Retha Robinson was the pianist.

While I was a member of this singing group, we made two trips to Little Rock. We sang at the Lafayette Hotel and on the "Little Rock Today" program on Channel Four TV.

The Court House Quartet-Karl King, Jack Pace, Rue Stokes and Cecil Pierce. Later Rue Stokes dropped out and Ewell Doshier joined us. Gwindola Wilburn, about 18 years of age, was our pianist, and she was very good.

Karl King was County Clerk, Jack Pace was sheriff, Ewell Doshier was County Assessor. Usually they were not too busy in the Court House on Saturday afternoon, so this became one of our practice periods in one of the offices. By the time we finished practicing, we usually had a good congregation and this is how we were named The Court House Quartet.

The Snow Community Singers; also a quartet, started with Auburn Keeter, Elizabeth Brown, E. L. Kirkwood, Garland James. In a short while, Garland dropped out, and Auburn called me to help out, Later, Kirkwood dropped out and Ewell Doshier joined us. Gwindola Wilburn was our pianist until her work at Harrison forced her to stop. Her sister, Mrs. Audrice Stonecipher, became our pianist. We sang at all the conventions and had a radio program on the Radio Stations at Harrison and Mountain Home, Mrs. Brown, because of her two small children, could not always go with us. When this was the case, she was replaced by R. A. Young. This quartet remained together for twelve years.

The Copeland Sisters Trio-Jean, Barbara and Deborah lived in the Snow Community and did much good singing in the county.

The Cedar Grove Trio-Fannie Keeter, Sibyl Parker and Louanis Kelley, with Eula Ledbetter as their pianist, sang at conventions, gatherings of many kinds, but did most of their singing for church services.

The Pleasant Ridge Quartet-Buck Harris, Edith Jones, Ewell Doshier and Joyce Doshier. Joyce was also the pianist. This quartet sang at conventions, gatherings and church services. After Buck Harris moved to Texas, I started singing with this group and, a few years later, Garland James joined us.

The Harris Sisters-a quartet with Vela, Viva, Orpha and Gail. These singers started as teen-agers,- went far and near to sing, and sang together for approximately eighteen years.

I am unable to name all the good singers of the county, but wish to mention some of those whose untiring efforts kept the Gospel Singing going in Marion County. First, I mention the late Eugene Johnson who, with his wife, attended every singing convention that was held in the county and drove to State and Tri-State Conventions. He was one of the presidents of the County Convention, a good leader, one of the best boosters of Gospel Singing and was always ready and willing to help any way he could. Second, a little guy known as "Heavy" (G. W. Ott) attended all the singings in Marion County and many outside the county. He was one of the presidents of the Convention and was the president of the Third Sunday Singing... for twelve consecutive years. He was forced to retire because of ill health. He still attends most of the county singings and is a great booster because he could always get more people out to a Sunday afternoon singing than anyone I have known. He kept the program moving-sometimes forty-three to forty-six songs on an afternoon program.

I must mention this funny incident about Heavy. He was "up and down" several times during an afternoon's program while he was "running" the singing. At this particular time, Heavy was sitting on a short seat behind the pulpit. The singing was progressing nicely and he got up to call another leader. While he was making a few remarks, someone moved his seat a little and, when he started to sit back down, he missed his seat. This stopped the singing completely for awhile. Everyone had a good laugh, including Heavy, then we started to sing again.

The Third Saturday night and Sunday afternoon singing session of March 1976 was one of the best. This meeting was held at New Hope Baptist Church under the direction of President Garland James. Mrs. Joan Dilbeck, Yellville's Elementary School Principal, was the pianist. She is an outstanding pianist, loves to play Gospel music and never gets tired at a meeting.

The older singers are passing on and the younger people, for some reason, do not seems to be interested in singing. I hope Gospel Singing will never end in Marion County.