Davis, Gary D. (30 April 1896–05 May 1972), guitarist and religious singer, was born in Laurens County, South Carolina, south of Spartanburg, the son of John Davis and Evelina (maiden name unknown), farmers. One of eight children, he grew up on a farm he later described as being so far out in the country “you couldn’t hear a train whistle blow unless it was on a cloudy day.” Partially blinded as a baby, Davis was placed in the care of his grandmother. He showed an aptitude for music as a boy, first playing harmonica and later, with his grandmother’s help, constructing a guitar. When he was between the ages of seven and ten his mother gave him a guitar, and over the next several years he became proficient, possibly learning from a local musician, Craig Fowler, and an uncle. By age ten he was singing in a Baptist church and playing for local dances. In his teens Davis began adding blues to a repertoire that already included country dance tunes and religious songs....
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Davis, Gary D. (1896-1972), guitarist and religious singer
Bill McCulloch and Barry Lee Pearson
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Gates, James M. (February 1884–18 August 1945), preacher and recording artist
Lerone A. Martin
Gates, James M. (? February 1884–18 August 1945), preacher and recording artist, was born in the rural black belt community of Hogansville, Georgia. The names of his parents are not known. Around 1913, following the death of their daughter Zadie, Gates and his wife Nellie (marriage date unknown) left sharecropping and joined the masses of black Americans who left rural America in search of the promises of urbanization. They moved to Atlanta and joined the Mount Calvary Baptist Church in the city’s Rockdale Park neighborhood, a migrant church founded in ...
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Smith, Samuel Francis (1808-1895), editor, Baptist clergyman, and author
P. Keith Gammons
Smith, Samuel Francis (21 October 1808–16 November 1895), editor, Baptist clergyman, and author, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel Smith and Sarah Bryant. Young Smith was educated at both the Eliot School and the Boston Latin School, where he received the distinguished Franklin medal in 1825. At Harvard College, Smith became part of the famous class of 1829, which also included ...
