32 Years Ago Today, Country Music Lost the Quartet Pioneer Known as “Mr. Gospel Music”

On this day (June 3) in 1994, Wally Fowler died at the age of 77. His body was found floating in Dale Hollow Lake, near Nashville. He was likely fishing when he suffered a fatal heart attack. Fowler an incredibly important figure in the gospel music world. He also founded the Harmony Quartet. Decades later, the group became the Oak Ridge Boys.

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Fowler was singing in church by the time he was six years old. Later, he became a member of the Daniel Quartet, a Rome, Georgia-based gospel group. They were the first gospel act to join the Grand Ole Opry. After leaving the Daniel Quartet, he moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he gained recognition for his songwriting.

According to The Oak Ridger, his songs “Mommy Please Stay Home with Me” and “I’m Sending You Red Roses” were recorded by Eddy Arnold and Jimmy Wakeley, respectively, in 1944. That year, he formed the Georgia Clodhoppers, which featured a young Chet Atkins on lead guitar. The band flexed their repertoire, which featured both country and gospel songs, on WNOX’s Mid-Day Merry Go Round.

Wally Fowler Founded the Oak Ridge Boys

Wally Fowler, Lon “Deacon” Freeman, Johnny New, and Curly Kinsey broke away from the Georgia Clodhoppers in 1945 to form the Harmony Quartet. They regularly performed in Oak Ridge, which was a largely unknown small town roughly 25 miles from Knoxville. It was one of the sites in which the Manhattan Project developed the first nuclear bomb. Three weeks after the United States dropped the newly developed weapons on Japan, the small town became big news.

Three weeks after the bombs dropped, the Grand Ole Opry came to Oak Ridge. Fowler and his new group appeared on the lineup as the Oak Ridge Quartet, cashing in on their proximity to the “Secret City” and its sudden notoriety.

Freeman, New, and Kinsey broke away from the group in 1949. As a result, Fowler hired members of the Calvary Quartet to take their place. Three years later, he left the group. However, he still owned the rights to the Oak Ridge Quartet name. Then, in 1957, he transferred the rights to Smitty Gatlin to cover a debt. In 1961, Gatlin changed the group’s name to the Oak Ridge Boys.

In the mid-1970s, the Southern gospel group started singing country songs. “Y’all Come Back Now Saloon” became their first country hit when it peaked at No. 3 in 1977.

Fowler Worked Outside the Group

Wally Fowler didn’t limit himself to working with the Oak Ridge Quartet. After moving to Nashville in the mid-1940s, he became a regular fixture of the Prince Albert Show segment of the Opry. In 1948, he led the first all-night gospel sing at the Ryman Auditorium. Similar events soon began to take place across the American South.

In the 1950s, he hosted the syndicated Wally Fowler Show, which showcased some of the finest Southern gospel groups in the country at the time. As the decade drew to a close, Fowler entered semi-retirement and spent time with his family.

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