Clara Ward

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For other persons named Clara Ward, see Clara Ward (disambiguation).

Clara Ward (April 21, 1924 - January 16, 1973)[1] was a gospel artist who achieved great success, both artistic and commercial, in the 1940s and 1950s as leader of The Famous Ward Singers. A gifted singer and arranger, Ward took the lead-switching style used by male gospel quartets to new heights, leaving room for spontaneous improvisation and vamping by each member of the group while giving virtuouso singers such as Marion Williams the opportunity to step forward in songs such as "Surely, God Is Able" (the first million-selling gospel hit), "How I Got Over" (which Clara wrote, one of the most famous songs in the Black gospel repetoire), and "Packin' Up".

Ward ranks among the greatest of gospel singers; only Mahalia Jackson is more exalted. Her beautiful alto (with a somewhat nasal tone) in gospel songs and the Methodist hymns of the eighteenth century continues to delight music lovers. She had a marked influence on later singers, such as her protegee Aretha Franklin, who adopted her moan for secular songs and who saluted Ward in Amazing Grace, the gospel album she made with James Cleveland in the early 1970s.

Contents

[edit] Career

Clara Ward's mother, Gertrude Ward (1901 - 1981), founded the Ward Singers in 1931 as a family group, then called variously "The Consecrated Gospel Singers" or "The Ward Trio", consisting of herself, her youngest daughter Clara, and her elder daughter Willa.

Clara Ward made her first solo recording in 1940 and continued accompanying the Ward Gospel Trio.

The Ward Singers began touring nationally in 1943, after making a memorable appearance at the National Baptist Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that year. Henrietta Waddy joined the group in 1947 after Willa Ward retired; she added a rougher alto and the enthusiastic stage manners taken from her South Carolina church background. The group's performance style, such as the mimed packing of suitcases as part of the song "Packin' Up", may have been condemned by some purists as "clowning" but was wildly popular with their audiences.

The addition of Marion Williams, who came out of the Pentecostal tradition growing up in Miami, Florida, brought even more to the group. A powerful singer with a preternaturally broad range, she was able to reach the highest registers of the soprano range without losing either purity or volume, and could also swoop down to growling low notes in the style of a country preacher. Williams' singing helped make the group nationally popular when they began recording in 1948.

In 1950 Clara Ward and the Famous Ward Singers of Philadelphia made their first appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York City on a gospel program produced by Joe Bostic, sharing the stage with Mahalia Jackson and appearing at Carnegie Hall again in 1952.

Over the years, Gertrude Ward created a booking agency for gospel acts, sponsored tours under the name "The Ward Gospel Cavalcade", established a publishing house for gospel music, and even wrote a book for churches on how to promote gospel programs. Gertrude also created and managed a second group, "The Clara Ward Specials", to accompany the Ward Singers. Although as musical director of the Ward franchise Clara was willing to share the spotlight with her talented co-singers, she and her mother were tightfisted about sharing the group's financial rewards with other members. According to Willa Ward's biography of Clara Ward, with the exception of Gertrude and Clara, Willa and other members of the group were grossly underpaid. In addition, their meagre earnings were further reduced because Gertrude and Clara provided their housing and charged them for it. Accordingly, stars such as Marion Williams and Frances Steadman not only had to accept second billing and lesser pay for their work, but pay their employers rent out of their earnings.

Williams left the group in 1958 when her demand for a raise and reimbursement for hotel expenses was rejected; she was followed shortly thereafter by the rest of the group--Henrietta Waddy, Frances Steadman and Kitty Parham--who formed a new group, "The Stars of Faith". Their departure marked the end of the glory days for the Ward Singers, who later alienated much of their churchgoing audience by performing in Las Vegas, nightclubs, and other secular venues in the 1960s. Ward's poor health forced her to retire in the early 1970s.

In 1959 Clara Ward was the first gospel singer to sing gospel songs on Broadway in Langston Hughes' play: "Tambourines To Glory". She was also the musical director for this play.

During the group's heyday, however, it was both widely popular and highly influential, emphasizing glamour--traveling in oversized Cadillacs, preferring sequined gowns for choir robes, and wearing wigs and jewelry that more conservative churchgoing women considered too worldly--while bringing Gertrude Ward's shrewd entrepreneurial sense to the gospel music business at large. Though Gertrude was a savvy negotiator, her understanding of the value of music copyrights was limited. According to Willa Ward, Gertrude was misled into believing that the songwriting royalties from Clara's compositions would be minimal and accordingly sold them. In her book Willa said the music ended up under the control of Herman Lubinsky, founder of Savoy Records (who was known for his unscrupulous exploitation of recording artists), and became owned by Planemar Music Company.

Though Clara Ward did not regularly sing secular music as a soloist or with her groups, she did sing backup for pop artists with her sister Willa's background group, most notably on Dee Dee Sharp's smash hit, 'Mashed Potato Time", which reached #1 on Billboard's pop chart in 1962. In 1969 she recorded an album for Capital Records entitled: "Born Free", which consisted of pop songs from Broadway plays and Hollywood movies. In the same year she recorded an album in Copenhagen, Denmark on the Philips label entitled: "Walk A Mile In My Shoes": this album included the pop title song, other pop songs (like California Dreaming) and a few gospel songs. She also recorded an album for MGM/Verve entitled: "Hang Your Tears Out To Dry" which included C/W, blues/folk, pop and the Beatles song, "Help". Her 1972 album on United Artists entitled: "Uplifting" (produced by Nikolas Venet and Sam Alexander) included her stunning interpretation of Bill Wither's pop hit: "Lean On Me". Also in 1972 Ward, because she was under exclusive contract to United Artists at this time, provided vocals for a blues band, "New Age", on a ballad entitled: "Looking For My Rainbow"; it was released on New Age's album and as a single 45 rpm record.

In 1968 Clara Ward and her singers toured Vietnam at the request of the U.S. State Department and the U.S.O. It was a very popular war-time tour supported by recorded radio broadcasts of the Ward Singers on U.S. Armed Forces Radio. The Ward Singers narrowly missed death when their hotel in Vietnam was bombed and several guests died. However, Clara was never afraid because she knew she was bringing some momentary joy, consolation, and a religious message to soldiers, many of whom would not return home alive, and they really showed their appreciation and enthusiasm for her style of gospel music. Clara Ward was invited back to Vietnam by U.S.O. in 1969 for several more months. These war-time tours were filmed and all the Ward Singers were given special certificates of recognition by the U.S. Army.

In 1977 Clara Ward was honored posthumously at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York City and her surviving sister, Willa, accepted an award in her honor.

In July of 1998, in recognition of her status as one of the most famous and loved gospel singers in the world, the United States Postal Service issued a 32 cent stamp with her image on it. The stamp can still be purchased with a CD and other gospel singers stamps at www.usps.com.

[edit] Personal Life

Despite her career success Clara's life was an unhappy one. Financial hardships caused her and her family to move 19 times before her adulthood. Sexually abused in childhood by a cousin and relentlessly driven as prime breadwinner by her mother throughout her life, Clara's life was one of constant work and little joy. According to her sister Willa, Gertrude Ward recognized Clara's exceptional musical ability when Clara was a child and controlled and manipulated Clara throughout her life. In her biography of Clara Willa attests that Gertrude worked to prevent Clara from forming any romantic attachments. Although Clara eloped as a teenager (at age 17 in 1941), her mother forced her to tour and the strain caused the always frail Clara to have a miscarriage. Her marriage ended after only one year. Willa describes Clara as explaining her occasional lesbian encounters as the sexual expression likely to escape her mother's notice. Her only real happiness seems to have come from her longtime romance with Rev. C. L. Franklin (with whom the Ward groups extensively toured), the famous Detroit-based preacher and father of legendary Aretha Franklin. Clara spent much time in the Franklin home and, along with Mahalia Jackson (another close Franklin family friend), mentored Aretha. Clara's depression resulted in alcoholism and after two strokes she died in 1973 at the age of 49.

[edit] Funeral

Aretha Franklin and Rev. C. L. Franklin sang at Clara Ward's funeral in Philadelphia in 1973; Marion Williams sang at Clara's second memorial service held days later in Los Angeles, California.

Clara Ward is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

[edit] Further Information

[edit] References

  1. ^ Though Clara Ward's birthday has been erroneously reported on the Internet as 'August 21, 1924', according to her sister, Willa Ward, Clara's birthday was April 21, 1924.
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