Smith, Willie Mae Ford (1904–1994)

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Smith, Willie Mae Ford (1904–1994)

Legendary African-American gospel singer who was featured in the documentary Say Amen, Somebody. Name variations: Mother Smith. Born in Rolling Fort, Mississippi, on June 23, 1904 (some sources cite 1906); died in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1994; daughter of Clarence Ford (a railroad brakeman) and Mary (Williams) Ford (a restaurant owner); attended school until eighth grade; married James Peter Smith (owner of a small business), in 1924 (died 1950); children: Willie James Smith; Jacquelyn Smith Jackson ; (adopted) Bertha Smith.

Debuted with sisters in Ford Sisters quartet (1922); performed with Ford Sisters at National Baptist Convention (1924); established and became director of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses Soloists Bureau (1932); toured extensively throughout the U.S. (1930s–1940s); sang with Mahalia Jackson at Easter Sunrise Service, Hollywood Bowl, California (late 1940s); ordained as a minister in the Lively Stone Apostolic Church, St. Louis, Missouri (mid-1950s); served for 17 years as director of the Education Department of the National BaptistConvention; featured in documentary film Say Amen, Somebody (1982); received National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Award as outstanding American folk artist (1988).

An inspiration for several generations of American gospel singers, Willie Mae Ford Smith, known as Mother Smith, was born on June 23, 1904, in Rolling Fort, Mississippi. She was one of 14 children born to Clarence Ford, a railroad brakeman, and Mary Williams Ford . Willie Mae's maternal grandmother, who sometimes cared for the children, had been a slave, and Smith remembered her "singing, clapping, and doing the 'Rock Daniel,' her name for the holy dance." When Willie Mae was 12, the family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, which was to remain Smith's lifelong home. Here, Mary Ford opened a restaurant where Willie Mae sometimes worked. Clarence and Mary were devout Baptists, and passed on strict religious teachings to their children.

Willie Mae received little formal schooling or musical education, but began singing with her sisters Mary, Emma , and Geneva as the Ford Sisters quartet in 1922. They performed at the 1924 National Baptist Convention, but their style was considered too exuberant and dramatic to be much in demand at the time. In the following years, the sisters married and the quartet broke up, but they encouraged Willie Mae to launch a solo career.

In 1924, Willie Mae married James Peter Smith, a small businessman with whom she would have two children, Willie James Smith and Jacquelyn Smith Jackson. During the 1930s, Willie Mae was often on the road. She met gospel pioneers Thomas A. Dorsey and Sallie Martin in 1932, and joined their gospel movement. In 1936, she organized the Soloists Bureau of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses for Dorsey, and for several years taught new generations of gospel singers. Her performance of "If You Just Keep Still," which she composed in 1937, was considered the standard for solo gospel singing.

Smith left the Baptist Church in 1939, when she was called to evangelical work in the Church of God Apostolic. She was ordained a minister in the Lively Stone Apostolic Church in St. Louis in the mid-1950s. During the 1940s and 1950s, Smith made concert appearances and performed at church revivals, pioneering a style that used small introductory sermons and song text explication—an approach that conservative church members found disturbingly close to the blues, but that others emulated. Smith knew and worked with the top gospel singers of the time, including Dorsey and Martin, Roberta Martin , and Mahalia Jackson . Among her most noted protégés are Bertha Smith , whom Willie Mae and her husband had adopted in the 1930s, Myrtle Scott, Martha Bass , the O'Neal Twins, Edna Gallman Cooke , and Brother Joe May. Though Smith did not record during her early career, many of her followers recorded verbatim versions of her arrangements.

Late in her career, Smith made some recordings of her songs. These include "I Believe I'll Run On" and "Going on With the Spirit" on the Nashboro Label, and "I Am Bound for Canaan Land" (Savoy SL 14739). In 1982, Smith was featured in the esteemed documentary film Say Amen, Somebody. She received a Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1988 as an outstanding American folk artist. Smith, who was widowed in 1950, died in St. Louis in 1994.