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Published: March 22, 2022, noon

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Mother Willie Mae Ford was one be pronounced \\u201cone of the most important gospel singers of the century\\u201d by The New York Times.  She influenced such singers as Mahalia Jackson and Brother Joe May.

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Willie Mae, Mary, Emma, and Geneva\\u2014 the Ford Sisters Quartet, a gospel group that performed around the Midwest throughout the early 1920s.

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From 1936 until the late 1980s, she served as director of the convention\\u2019s Soloist Bureau, evaluating, coaching, and influencing a who\\u2019s who of gospel singers: Roberta Martin, Mahalia Jackson, Edna Gallmon Cooke, Martha Bass, Myrtle Scott, the O\\u2019Neal Twins, and Brother Joe May. 

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Appeared at the 1972 Newport Jazz Festival singing Gospel which resurged her recording career at the age of 67.  

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One of the featured women in Brian Lanker\\u2019s I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America 1989.

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If you have any questions or comments about this episode, please send an email to: letstalk2gmg@gmail.com

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