R.I.P.: Radio/Gospel Singer George Beverly Shea

George Beverly Shea

George Beverly Shea, the gospel singer who performed for more than 200 million people worldwide during six decades as the soloist in the Reverend Billy Graham’s evangelical crusades, has died.

He was 104.

Bloomberg reports Shea died Tuesday following a brief illness, according to a statement by Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He lived in Montreat, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where Graham also resides.

Known as “America’s Beloved Gospel Singer,” Shea and 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 Royal Albert Hall and the 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 By age 23, Shea played organ and sang in his father’s church. Shea began to develop a reputation from his appearances on the New York radio stations WMCA and WHN as well as through his performances at outdoor Bible meetings. In 1939, he received an offer to travel to Chicago to become a staff announcer for Christian radio station WMBI.

His network radio singing began in 1942 with “Club Time,” a program carried by ABC, the Armed Forces Network and independent stations. Graham, who was then pastor of the Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois, took over the “Songs in the Night” program on Chicago station WCFL in 1943.

Shea sang at his first Billy Graham crusade in 1947 and joined the evangelist’s weekly “Hour of Decision” radio broadcast in 1950.

He was elected to the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in 1978 and was similarly recognized by the Religious Broadcast Hall of Fame in 1996.

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