Ivan M. Tribe, 33°
111 East High Street, McArthur, Ohio, 45651-1111
Hovie F. Lister, Gospel Singer and Southern
Baptist Minister, was one of the most beloved and popular country
music entertainers of his time.
Southern
Gospel, particularly that of vocal quartets, has been an important
musical form to millions of Americans who find it both musically
and spiritually satisfying. In the 1940s and 1950s, gospel quartet
music moved from being almost totally performed by gifted amateurs
to being a commercialized form dominated by professional groups
such as the Blackwood Brothers and the Statesmen Quartet. The
latter group was led by our recently deceased Brother, Hovie
Franklin Lister, 32°, the subject of this biographical sketch.
An especially skilled pianist, frequent vocalist, and gifted
showman, Bro. Lister gained fame as the man who "put rhythm
in religion."
Hovie Franklin Lister was born in the textile-mill city of
Greenville, South Carolina, on September 17, 1926. He acquired
his unusual first name from a Reverend Hovie whom his parents
admired. When he reached the age of six, his parents had him
take piano lessons. He soon progressed to the point where he
became accompanist for an amateur quartet, the Lister Brothers,
that included his father and uncles. They performed in local
churches, at singing conventions, and on a local radio station.
At age 14, Hovie accompanied the noted sacred composer C. Austin
Miles of "In the Garden" fame. In addition, Lister
furnished music for the well-known evangelist Reverend Mordecai
Ham. Æ Aiming to further his already considerable musical
ability, Lister continued his education at the Stamps-Baxter
School of Music, one of the two leading publishers of the softcover
hymnals favored by quartets and sponsored singing schools, song
conventions, and touring quartets throughout the South.
After completing high school, Lister came to Atlanta, Georgia,
in 1945. The city was emerging as the center for many of the
professional gospel quartets, partially on the strength of the
All-Night Singing Conventions. Over the next three years, Hovie
gained additional experience playing with the Rangers Quartet,
the Homeland Harmony Quartet, and the LeFevre Trio. In addition
to their singing appearances in churches and auditoriums, these
groups regularly appeared over WAGA and WGST radio in Atlanta.
Hovie Lister's ultimate dream, however, was to lead his own
group, and in October 1948, this goal became reality when he
organized the Statesmen Quartet. The group took their name from
the newspaper, the Statemen, which served as the political
voice of Georgia Senator and then Governor Herman Eugene Talmadge.
This gave Hovie's new quartet a high degree of name recognition
from the start. Other early members of the aggregation included
Jake Hess, who subsequently went on after some 15 years with
Lister to found his own group, the Imperials; James "Big
Chief" Wetherington, a legendary bass singer; Mosie Lister,
who ranked as their first lead singer; and baritone vocalist
Doy Ott, an Oklahoman who was as renowned in his field as was
Wetherington in his. In 1953, Denver Crumpler joined the Statesmen
Quartet, remaining until his untimely death in 1957. Crumpler
was replaced by Roland "Rozie" Roselle, who also spent
many years with the quartet. Although Hovie Lister primarily
worked as pianist, leader, and emcee, he switched parts and
did vocals on occasion.
Hovie Franklin Lister became a Mason in Oglethorpe Lodge No.
655 in Atlanta, Georgia. He received his Entered Apprentice
Degree on August 18, 1952, his Fellowcraft Degree on September
22, 1952, and was raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason
on October 13, 1952. After a series of mergers, his membership
was at Masters Lodge No. 295 in Decatur, Georgia, at the time
of his death. He subsequently completed his Scottish Rite Degrees
in the Valley of Atlanta on April 21, 22, 23, and 24, 1953,
and became a Noble of Yaarab Shrine Temple in Atlanta on December
16, 1953. He served as Chaplain of the latter for several years.
As a Shriner, he helped organize the annual Sundown to Sunup
Gospel Singing in Waycross, Georgia, which, over a period of
years, raised over a quarter of a million dollars for the Shrine
Hospitals.
Meanwhile the members of the Statesmen Quartet continued to
make their mark in the gospel music field. They secured a contract
with Capitol Records and in 1954 began an 18-year affiliation
with RCA Victor, ranking them second only to the Blackwood Brothers
as long-term contractees on that major label. Hovie was surpassed
only by the Chuck Wagon Gang on Columbia. For some time, they
had two daily radio programs on WCON (owned by the Atlanta
Constitution), and after this newspaper's merger with the
Atlanta Journal, Lister had programs on WSB, the number-one
station in all Georgia. As television gained in popularity,
the quartet had programs on WSB. They also had a nationally
syndicated program, "Singing Time in Dixie," under
the sponsorship of the National Biscuit Company, the first gospel
quartet to be so featured. The Statesmen also appeared on several
network TV shows as guests including the Arthur Godfrey Show,
Tennessee Ernie Ford Program, Dave Garroway's Wide
Wide World, and the Jimmy Dean Show. The quartet
appeared on WSM radio's legendary Grand Ole Opry a number of
times. Motion picture opportunities also knocked on their door
as they did the sound track for the popular 20th Century Fox
1955 film biography of Brother Peter Marshall. Titled A Man
Called Peter, the film starred Richard Todd and Jean Peters
in the lead roles. They also did the sound track in 1957 for
another movie, God Is My Partner, starring Walter Brennan.
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In 1964, Bro. Hovie
F. Lister (seated at the piano) led the Statesmen Quartet,
composed of (l. to r.) Roland "Rozie" Roselle,
Jake Hess, Doy Ott, and James Wetherington.
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Over the years, a number of personnel changes took place in
the quartet. Jake Hess left in 1963 to form his Imperials. Jack
Toney succeeded him as lead vocalist. "Rozie" Rozelle
departed to be replaced by an Ohioan named James Vaughn Hill.
When the Statesmen's association with RCA Victor expired, they
recorded several albums for the all-gospel Skylite Records.
Not long after the death of James Wetherington in 1973, Bro.
Lister decided in October 1974 to disband the Statesmen. Soon
after, he organized what might be termed a super-gospel group
that included himself as leader and pianist, the equally legendary
James Blackwood and bass vocalist extraordinaire J. D.
Sumner (formerly of the Sunshine Boys and the Stamps Quartet),
and two former Statesmen, Rozelle and Hess, naming them the
Masters V. This group won a Grammy during their years together
but, after a time, disbanded. Hovie then reorganized the Statesmen
remaining active until a few weeks before his death.
A tremendously energetic individual, Bro. Hovie Lister had
a second career for a number of years from 1951 as an ordained
Baptist minister. According to his friend former Georgia Governor
and current U. S. Senator Zell Miller, "Throughout his
years of travels, [Hovie] always came back to fill his country-church
pulpit at the little Mt. Zion Baptist Church near Marietta .
. . from which he refused to take any salary." More recently,
he served as deacon at the Druid Hills Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Several Governors of Georgia named him "Ambassador of Good
Will," and he also served as a Field Representative during
the 1987-1993 U. S. Senate term of Wyche Fowler. In spite of
all his activities, Hovie and his wife, the former Ethel Abbott
of Lithonia, Georgia, found time to rear two children, Lisa
and Chip.
Numerous honors came to Brother Lister during his lifetime.
He received eight Grammy nominations, winning one. In 1984,
he was named to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Two years later,
he was chosen for the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. In addition,
he received two honorary doctorates, one of them from Burton
College and Seminary in Colorado. Together with his musical
associates James Blackwood and J. D. Sumner, he was credited
with founding the National Quartet Convention, the first of
which was held in Memphis, Tennessee. He also served on the
Board of Directors of the Gospel Music Association. In later
years, Lister was the subject of a full-length biography by
David L. Taylor, Happy Rhythm: A Biography of Hovie Lister
& the Statesman Quartet.
Time eventually caught up with Bro. Hovie Franklin Lister.
While long familiar with his music and name, my own interests
grew more serious when I was asked to write an entry on him
by the editor of the forthcoming Encyclopedia of South Carolina.
When I contacted Hovie in November 2001, he sent me, in quick
order, sufficient information for a 300-word entry. When his
PR bio mentioned that he was a Mason and Shriner, my interest
developed further, and I called him again concerning an article
in the Scottish Rite Journal. He sounded flattered to
be the subject of such an article, but the only question I asked
him was if he had caught much criticism for his Masonic membership
within Southern Baptist ranks. He responded that he had received
very little, in part because many Southern Baptist ministers
were numbered among his Masonic Brethren. Although Hovie never
complained beyond apologizing for being somewhat hoarse voiced
because he had just returned from three days of concerts in
Indiana, I learned from my friend, historian Charles Wolfe,
that Brother Lister was quite ill. He passed away on December
28, 2001, from what the newspapers termed "acute lymphoblastic
leukemia." Thus this article is somewhat more limited in
scope and quality than it might have been. Nonetheless, Brother
Lister certainly earned his niche in the annals of Southern
Gospel Music. Perhaps no better tribute could be paid to him
than that of former Georgia House Speaker Tom Murphy who said
"He [is one who] has given the world so many smiles."
Note: In addition to my brief conversations
with Brother Lister and his wife in November 2001 and the material
they furnished, I am indebted to the staff of the Grand Lodge
of Georgia, the Valley of Atlanta, Georgia, S.J., Yaarab Shrine
Temple, Atlanta, and Ill. John W. Boettjer, 33°, G.C., Managing
Editor, Scottish Rite Journal, for assistance in developing
this article.
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Ivan M. Tribe
is a member of Albany Lodge No. 723 in Albany, Ohio, and
the Scottish Rite Bodies of Cambridge, Ohio, N.M.J. In September
2000, he received the 33° in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
A Knight of the York Cross of Honor and a Professor of History
at the University of Rio Grande in Ohio, he was recently
appointed Associate Editor for The Encyclopedia of Gospel
Music and is a frequent contributor to various Masonic publications,
including the Scottish Rite Journal. |
