George Beverly Shea

George Beverly Shea (1909-2013) was often called America’s beloved singer
He lived to be 104 and spent nearly 60 years of those years singing and working with Bill Graham.

He was born on 1st February 1909 in Winchester, Ontario, Canada.
His first singing was in the choir of his father’s Wesleyan Methodist Church.
He later sang with the Houghton (N.Y.) College Glee Club.

He was educated at Annesley College in Ottawa (1926-8). and Houghton College. Houghton, N.Y. (1928-9).

For the next 9 years he worked in a minor way in radio broadcasting (singing on WMCA and WHN), while working as a clerk of Mutual of New York insurance(1929-38).
From 1938-44 he was an announcer and staff soloist at WMBI radio Chicago.He met Bllly Graham there in 1943.

When Billy Graham took over the radio program Songs in the Night he remembered George and enlisted him to help with the broadcast.

This was the beginning of a long association. In 1947 George went to sing at Charlotte, N.C., Billy’s hometown, at one of Billy’s first city wide Crusades.

I have sometimes said that I would feel lost getting up to preach if Bev were not there to prepare the way through an appropriate song. Billy Graham.

The famous 1949 Los Angeles tent meeting catapulted Billy and his associates to national attention. The team went onto share the Gospel on every continent.

Bev with Cliff Barrows were the nucleus of the Crusade musical team. He was one of the busiest members of the team and he sung at hundreds of concerts. He was part of the team up until 2013.

He was soloist on the Hour of Decision from 1950-2013. Singing weekly on this program for over 60 years his bass-baritone voice is recognised across the world.

He used utilized all available media to share the ‘Good News’ of Jesus Christ.

He was prolific recording artist and composer for over 50 years (1951-2013)and had 70 albums of hymns and 9 CDs. He was the recipient of 10 Grammy awards.
He is on 3 lists of Hall of Fame- Gospel Music Association (1978), Religious Broadcasting (1996) and Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists (2008).

He received many other awards and honours over the years. (See list of awards and honors).

He never retired - all the dates go up to 2013 - the year he died.

He died on Tuesday April 16th 2013 after a brief illness.

Every hymn he sang was a testimony to the saving power of Jesus Christ.

Source
Wikipedia