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About Clara Ward
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Ward
Clara Mae Ward (April 21, 1924 – January 16, 1973) was an American gospel artist who achieved great artistic and commercial success during the 1940s and 1950s, as leader of The Famous Ward Singers.
Ward had a longtime romance with Rev. C. L. Franklin (with whom the Ward groups extensively toured), the Detroit-based preacher and father of Aretha Franklin.
Biography
From BlackHistoryNow
1924-1973 Clara Ward applied her unique talent as a singer, pianist, and arranger to join with her family in creating one of the most popular gospel acts of all time. Together they combined an unprecedented fusion of church and popular performance elements with an entrepreneurial spirit and drive, leading to enormous commercial and artistic success.
But perhaps the group’s most startling (and to many traditionalists, upsetting) innovation was the marriage of conventional “show business” and gospel: they appeared in sequined gowns, forsaking the black choir robes then in vogue; drove fancy Cadillacs; wore towering wigs; and performed with theatrical gestures and a zest and élan never before seen in church music. The broader public adored their performances, and by the late 1940s the group had reached a creative and popular peak with such crowd pleasers as “I’m Climbing Higher and Higher.” They began recording in 1947, and achieved tremendous success in 1949 with the popular gospel tune “Surely God is Able,” which Clara rearranged in a radically new style, and “Packin’ Up,” which would become a trademark stage performance with their physical enactments of the song’s story and Ward’s “hard gospel” style shrieks and growls. They were widely considered to be the finest hymn singers in the world ....
By the 1960s, the surviving group had taken the next, perhaps inevitable step toward the fusion of religious and popular art: they began performing in night clubs like New York’s Village Vanguard, at Disneyland, and even in Las Vegas. Despite the shock this caused religious fans, the Ward Singers continued to enjoy a fair degree of popularity with white audiences and continued performing and touring throughout the decade. In 1963, Ward performed in a gospel musical written by Langston Hughes, “Tambourines to Glory.” She toured the U.S., including major venues such as the Newport Jazz Festival. Ward’s health declined toward the end of this period, leading to a decision to retire. She died on January 16, 1973, having created a wholly new type of music that would influence the subsequent development of nearly all African American styles and performers. Aretha Franklin memorialized Ward in a gospel album in 1972, and sang at her funeral in Philadelphia. At a second service held in Los Angeles, Marion Williams sang, a fitting tribute to her former colleague and co-star.
===Links
* link to Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture [4 volumes]edited by Jessie Carney Smith
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Clara Ward's Timeline
| 1924 |
April 21, 1924
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Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States
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| 1973 |
January 16, 1973
Age 48
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Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States
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Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Freedom Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Commandments, Glendale, Los Angeles County, California, United States
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