PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Canadian George Beverly Shea 102 to get another Grammy

This musician, (singer to those of you who will take offense) is getting a lifetime achievement award:



George Beverly Shea: 102-year-old Canadian singer to receive honour
Gospel singer George Beverly Shea has sang before presidents and celebrities for decades but is likely unknown to most Canadians.

Dave Chan/Postmedia News

Gospel singer George Beverly Shea has sang before presidents and celebrities for decades but is likely unknown to most Canadians.


Ian Hunter, National Post · Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011

At the Grammy Awards next month, a 102-year-old Canadian singer, who won his first Grammy half a century ago, will be honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The singer’s name is George Beverly Shea. Probably most Canadians have never heard of him.

George Beverly Shea is a Methodist preacher’s kid from Winchester, near Ottawa. He was born on Feb. 1, 1909.

By singing at the Rev. Billy Graham’s worldwide crusades, it is estimated that Mr. Shea’s resonant bass-baritone voice has been heard in person by more than 230 million people, a Guinness record unlikely to be broken. Bev Shea sang in the flesh to more people than Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles combined. And he sang always in praise of Jesus Christ.

Mr. Shea’s 1966 Grammy award was for composing the music to the hymn that defined his career: I’d Rather Have Jesus (the words were written in the 1920s by a minister’s wife, Rhea F. Miller). Shea also wrote, arranged, and recorded the song The Wonder of It All, which has been translated into many languages.

George Beverly Shea (the odd middle name was in honour of an itinerant preacher, Dr. Beverly Carradine, who had impressed Bev’s father) was the fourth of eight children; his father taught him to play the violin, and his mother taught him piano. But it was his deep baritone voice that soon caught public attention, first when he sang solos in his father’s Methodist church at about eight, then as a teenager in other Ottawa Valley churches.

When Mr. Shea was five years old, two American singers who were to sing that Sunday in his father’s church came to the Shea home in Winchester to ask Mrs. Shea to accompany them while they learned what they called a “new” hymn; it was The Old Rugged Cross. The young boy stood by the piano, his mouth open, listening intently; for half a century and more, Mr. Shea would go on to sing that hymn around the world.

Mr. Shea attended Houghton College in upstate New York, then started his career as a claims adjuster for Mutual Life Insurance Company. But Moody Bible Institute in Chicago had recently established America’s first Christian radio station (WMBI); In 1940, Mr. Shea began to broadcast Hymns in the Night. This program was soon syndicated widely.

It was on Jan. 2, 1944, that Mr. Shea first sang for a Billy Graham meeting. Graham was then pastor at Village Baptist Church near Chicago, and Mr. Shea’s hymns were broadcast from the church basement. Soon after, Graham asked Mr. Shea, and music director Cliff Barrows, to join him for itinerant evangelizing.

Mr. Shea recalled it beginning this way: “I came to this work with Mr. Graham after we had exchanged letters and talked on the phone. He said he wanted me to be his gospel singer. I thanked him, but told him that the only gospel singers I’d ever heard about would sing a verse or two and stop and talk awhile. ‘Would I have to do that?’ I asked him. He chuckled and said: ‘I hope not’. With that I said: ‘Well, I’d like to come with you.’ That was in November, 1947, and I’ve been with him ever since.”

The Canadian who was soon dubbed “America’s beloved Gospel singer” would sing every night during a crusade, just before Billy Graham preached.

Throughout his career, Mr. Shea recorded about 70 records, mostly for RCA Victor. Perhaps his best known recording was Stuart Hynes’ English translation of a Swedish hymn How Great Thou Art. Mr. Shea premiered this hymn at the Billy Graham Toronto crusade at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1955, and went on to sing it nightly during the 1957 Madison Square Garden crusade.

On his 100th birthday in 2009, Mr. Shea was honoured at a party at the Billy Graham Center in Asheville, North Carolina. Mr. Shea told a local paper: “On the ladder of life, I have reached Rung 100 and I can survey the scenery a little better than those who are still climbing.” Billy Graham said on that occasion: “I will always be grateful not only for his musical contribution, but also for his warm spirit and personal friendship.”

National Post

• Ian Hunter is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Law at Western University.

Thanks for posting this John. I just went to utube and watched a few videos. Amazing story.

Jford, you can never go wrong quoting Rich Mullins!

Man, isn't it amazing. George Shea actually makes Billy Graham look like a kid! Wow, 102 years old! It must be the water up there.

George is to gospel music what Billy is to evangelism. Both were mighty men used by God because they were pieces of clay willing to be used by the potter. Awesome!

Cheers,
RickeG

I cut out the article, ordered a CD by him from Amazon and got it the next day and took it to my now 83 year old Mom who thinks he's the cat's whiskers.

She asked me to get another for aunt Pearl who's 99 and her husband was a Baptist minister here and in the US. Must have done well, she gave Billy G 300 g's twice. My Dad who does her accounts says she get both Canuck and US social security which is more than the nursing home cost. My luck I'm lucid and end up in a ward with 3 old guys who pass gas.

I did a stint in the hospital recently and got a private room, I think they thought I was expiring, but you know, they say he lived to a ripe old age and no one can tell me when ripe is...so I'm guess I'm not quite there yet.

I hope they let me lean in the wheelchair...you gotta get rid of it somehow.