George Younce 1930-2005 |
Last Updated: Wed, Apr 13, 2005, 1:19 EDT
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Visitation
Monday, April 18, 2005, 4-9 p.m. Akron Baptist Temple 2324 Manchester Road (OH SR-93) Akron, Ohio 44314-3696 Phone: 330-745-8824 Click for Directions |
Funeral
Tuesday, April 19, 2005, 11 a.m. Akron Baptist Temple 2324 Manchester Road (OH SR-93) Akron, Ohio 44314-3696 Phone: 330-745-8824 Click for Directions |
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Cards/Flowers
The Younce family respectfully asks that anyone desiring to send flowers please have them sent for Monday, April 18 delivery to: Akron Baptist Temple 2324 Manchester Road, Akron, OH 44314-3696 Church phone: 330-745-8824
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the dialysis
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Singing News has learned that the legendary George Younce has passed away. According to George's son-in-law, Ernie Haase of Signature Sound, George passed away at approximately 3:30 a.m., Monday, April 11, 2005.
In a conversation with Singing News' Danny Jones, Ernie Haase asked for everyone's prayers for the entire Younce family during this difficult time. He further states that the family wants everyone to know that George loved the people of Southern Gospel Music and often spoke of the kindness and love he encountered from the fans. George never forgot the fans . . . and the fans will never forget George.
George Wilson Younce was born near Lenoir, NC, February 22, 1930, George Washington's birthday. According to George's brother, Eugene (Brudge, as he is known by many Southern Gospel Music followers), their dad just couldn't resist naming the baby George in honor of the country's first president. Mr Younce also added a middle name of Wilson - not for President Woodrow Wilson, but for the doctor who delivered George.
From a very early age, George was a "natural" on stage. Brudge recollects that as early as age five, George would sing and dance on a local storehouse porch. When George finished, he'd pick up pennies tossed on the porch by passerbys and quickly turn them into candy inside the store. On Sundays, after returning home from church, George would "treat" the family to a complete rerun of that morning's sermon, mimicking the pastor while preaching from a chair or, on occasion, from the top of the living room table.
George experienced his first taste of quartet singing right after World War II. When George was about 16 years old, he worked in a furniture factory that was located about a hundred yards from the Younce home. George got off from work at 4:30 in the afternoon, the same time that the Blue Ridge Quartet came on with their radio program. This was the beginning of George's desire to sing professional Gospel Music. George took advantage of an opportunity to attend a Stamps-Baxter School of Music. He studied shaped-note singing and made good use of his learning by singing with a local group called the Spiritualaires. At the time he joined the group, George was singing lead. Then the inevitable happened.
In an interview several years ago, George recalled the day his voice changed. "The group was supposed to sing one night at a church nearby. I got up that morning and while I was cleaning up, I started to run over some of the songs we would do. When I hit that first note, I thought someone had cut my throat! All day long, I tried my best to practice my lead part. Just when I thought I had it right, I lost it again. That night, we tried to sing 'I'm Winging My Way Back Home' and it was awful. That was the night I went from the lead part to bass. I've been there ever since."
Uncle Sam called on George for military duty in 1950. Brudge had been a paratrooper during World War II and cautioned George about the hazards of following in his footsteps. Naturally, George became a paratrooper, making nearly 30 jumps before leaving the army. One of those jumps that George made was over the atomic bomb blast in Desert Rock, NV. George would make the comment in later years that he was a "complete idiot to volunteer to make that jump - but it was a pretty good fireworks show!" After his return from serving his country, George's interest once again turned to singing Southern Gospel Music. His love for singing was so great that when he got the opportunity to join a part-time group, he took it, ignoring the fact that it was based far away in West Virginia. George got the job by chance. While he was in the service, George had become friends with a boy from the Beckley, WV, area. The young man lost his life during the service and after George was discharged, he took an opportunity to visit his friend's bereaved parents. When he was visiting in Beckley, he met a quartet who was there that day. The group's bass singer had just moved to California, so they were looking to replace him. George announced to the group that he could sing bass, so after rehearsing a little bit, George was offered the job. The group, the Watchmen, was sponsored and promoted by Joe McAley, a coal mine superintendent who loved Gospel singing. George lived with Mr McAley and his family the entire time George sang with the group. It was in 1954 that George joined the Watchmen. From there, George would join the Weatherford Quartet, who would team up with Rex Humbard in 1956. George then re-formed the Watchmen Quartet before joining the Blue Ridge Quartet in 1957. George would recall several years later that it was astonishing to him to think that he would sing bass for the group he had grown up listening to.
George would sing for the Blue Ridge Quartet for five years, receiving what he would call the greatest encouragement he's ever received from anyone in Southern Gospel Music from Elmo Flagg, who was the manager of the group during the years of George's tenure. According to George, "When I joined the group, I was as green as grass. I thought I knew how to sing with a quartet, but I found out that I really didn't. Elmo never once in anger told me that I wasn't doing something right. He would also approach a problem by telling me that he believed he could help me. We would keep working on it until we got it right." George also studied under "The Professor," Lee Roy Abernathy, during this time. He would travel to Abernathy's home in Canton, GA, often staying with the instructor a week at a time.
As the winter of 1964 approached, George received a telephone call that would forever change his career. Back in 1963, Glen Payne, Bobby Clark and Danny Coker had formed a trio to sing for television evangelist Rex Humbard at his Cathedral of Tomorrow in Akron, OH. After only a few months, Humbard felt impressed to make the trio a quartet. Thus, the search began for a bass singer. It was in November of 1964 that the search ended with the hiring of George Younce. All was going well with newly formed Cathedral Quartet. Steady salaries, comfortable homes and national attention gained while singing on Humbard's syndicated telecasts were enabling the group members to enjoy their jobs immensely. Yet, there was a growing feeling among each singer to do more than just sing at the Cathedral of Tomorrow. Finally, under Glen and George's direction, the Cathedral Quartet became a full-time quartet, leaving the securities to which they had become accustomed. George, in an interview with Singing News in 1983, summed up the early days of the Cathedral Quartet on its own by saying, "We nearly starved to death!"
But, as history has recorded, the Cathedral Quartet prospered to become what many people feel was the finest Southern Gospel group to ever grace a concert stage. The group was the most awarded group in Southern Gospel history, taking home no less than 70 Singing News Fan Awards alone. Of those 70 awards, at least 18 bear the name of George Younce. Fifteen plaques are in the Younce household today, proclaiming George as Southern Gospel's Favorite Bass Singer. This year, the readers of Singing News awarded George the Favorite Male Vocalist Of The Year Fan Award.
The George Younce name is also enshrined in the Southern Gospel Music Hall Of Fame, having been awarded this honor in 1998. In September of this year, George was featured with his late friend Glen Payne on the Southern Gospel Music Association's second commemorative print, Precious Memories.
In September of 1987, George suffered a massive heart attack that threatened to end his career. The Cathedral Quartet was in Englewood, CO, that day, following an appearance the previous night at Englewood's huge First Nazarene Church. George, who had suffered discomfort throughout the night after retiring to his hotel room, summoned (then) Cathedral baritone Mark Trammell around 6:00am, explaining that he couldn't breathe.
Trammell immediately notified paramedics, who rushed George to a local hospital.
X-rays revealed an enlarged and damaged heart. New X-rays on the following Monday showed that George's heart had returned to near-normal size. A heart catherization was completed later that week to determine the extent of the damage.
As he began the recovery process, George not only had to deal with the damage to his heart, but because of side effects and stress induced by the heart attack, he had to face the fact that he could not utter one sound. At first, George was sure that God was through with him. But slowly, the voice began to come back.
It was in Stuart, FL, that any doubt that George may have had about God's plan for him was completely put aside. George stated in many interviews that he dressed for the concert and when he was alone on the bus before the concert, he got down on his knees and asked the Lord for help. "I told the Lord that I would sing for Him if He would touch me because I knew that was the only way I could do it."
Initially, George planned to open the program with a few songs that featured the entire group so he could build up his voice to do a solo. But when the group walked on stage, George felt impressed to call "The Plan Of Salvation," a song that featured the bass part on the verses. The Lord touched George and he made it through the song. George admitted that it wasn't the prettiest singing, but that experience was his answer from the Lord that He wasn't through with him. Anyone who knew George Younce knows that he had a real zest for life. He was always trying to find the positive side of every situation. For example, during his recovery from his heart attack, George was to exercise by walking every day, no matter whether he was at home or on the road. George had been back on the road about three months and The Cathedrals were in Bel Air, MD, when George stepped off a curb during his walk and broke his arm. His first thought? "Hey, I've got a new joke I can use!" As countless audiences would hear for the next several months, George couldn't resist mentioning that he broke his arm in three places and someone told him to stay out of those three places! Despite those moments when it's easier to cry than laugh, George stated often that he would not have traded one moment of his time as a Cathedral Quartet member for anything that the world could offer. As the group grew, George's walk with the Lord also grew stronger. An often-printed quote from George says "I like to think of myself as still being the same as I started out. But, of course, I'm not. I thank the Lord I've been able to adapt myself to the different styles of music, but I guess the biggest change in me has been wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ because when I started singing, I loved to sing but I really didn't know the one I was singing about. I loved Gospel Music, but I really wasn't a Christian. Once I devoted my life to The Lord, the songs that I was singing took on a new meaning and I've never been the same."
Following the retirement of the Cathedrals in 1999, George continued to fulfill a limited appearance schedule, often singing as a soloist and most recently, with the Old Friends Quartet. George's appreciation of the goodness of the Lord remained strong until his passing. In a 1996 Singing News cover feature, George summed up his life by saying "There is no way in the world that I can sit here and be thankful enough for what I've been able to do. I've put clothes on my kids, raised a good family, sent them to school, lived in a comfortable home, driven a nice car and I still get to eat good food. How in the world could I complain about anything? All I can do is praise God."
George is survived by his wife of 49 years, Clara; four daughters, Gina, Dana, Lisa and Tara; one son, George Lane; three grandchildren. He was 75 years old.
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