Gertrude Mae Ward

Evangelist, gospel singer. Mother of gospel singer Clara Ward.

Biography

Born in Philadelphia on August 21, 1924, Clara Ward was unquestionably the driving creative force behind her group's success, but the business smarts belonged to her mother, Gertrude Mae Murphy Ward. The textbook stage mother, Gertude and her husband relocated to the Philadelphia area from a life of abject poverty in rural South Carolina; the family struggled throughout the Depression, but in 1931 she was struck by a vision which commanded her to begin a singing career. Forming a family group which included Clara and her sister Willa on piano, Gertrude quickly emerged among the most forceful promoters in all of gospel - a gifted vocalist in her own right, her truest talents were nonetheless of an entrepreneurial nature, and after a transcendent performance at the 1943 National Baptist Convention, the Ward Singers were one of the top attractions on the church circuit.

Links

• link to Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture [4 volumes]edited by Jessie Carney Smith
• Ancestry tree
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/2099/ward