Gospel soloist for Graham crusades
George Beverly Shea, the gospel singer who performed for more than 200 million people worldwide during six decades as the soloist in the Rev. Billy Graham’s evangelical crusades, has died. He was 104.
Shea died Tuesday after a brief illness, according to a statement by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He lived in Montreat, N.C., in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where Graham also resides.
Known as “America’s Beloved Gospel Singer,” Shea and program director Cliff Barrows served as the nucleus of Graham’s musical team since 1949. With the crusades, he sang in more than 185 countries and in all 50 U.S. states, at venues from football stadiums to the Royal Albert Hall and White House.
A bass-baritone, Shea recorded more than 70 albums of Christian music and was nominated for 10 Grammy Awards, winning once in 1965. He was probably best known for his powerful rendition of “How Great Thou Art” in the 1950s, a song later recorded by Elvis Presley. He also composed several hymns, including “The Wonder of It All.”
Shea was born on Feb. 1, 1909, in Winchester, Ontario, to A.J. Shea, a Wesleyan Methodist minister, and Maude Whitney Shea. He sang at his father’s church, and later in the glee club at Houghton College, a Christian school in upstate New York.
Shea sang at his first Billy Graham crusade in 1947 and joined the evangelist’s weekly Hour of Decision radio broadcast in 1950.
He is survived by his wife, Karlene. They were married in 1985. He has two children from a previous marriage, Ronald and Elaine.
Lovable ‘Lumpy’ on Leave It to Beaver
Frank Bank, who played the sweet teenage nitwit Lumpy Rutherford on the 1950s-’60s hit sitcom Leave It to Beaver, died Saturday in Los Angeles. He had celebrated his 71st birthday the day before.
His death was confirmed by Stu Shostak, a friend, who did not provide a cause.
Lumpy - a friend of Wally Cleaver (Tony Dow), the older brother of Beaver Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) - was the closest thing the cheerful series had to a bad guy; he tried to push younger boys around but wasn’t very good at it.
Bank reprised the role in a 1983 television movie, Still the Beaver, and a follow-up series, The New Leave It to Beaver, which featured the once-young characters as the older generation. He also played a small part in the feature-film remake Leave It to Beaver (1997).
Typecast after his years on Leave It to Beaver, he soon retired from entertainment and became a securities trader.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 04/18/2013