Barbara Fairchild

Country and gospel singer/songwriter Barbara Fairchild cut her debut single at age 15. Immediately after finishing high school she landed an MCA songwriting deal yet kept taking the stage. A Columbia Nashville recording contract soon followed, yielding the 1969 single “Love Is a Gentle Thing.” Across the 1970s she placed seven albums with Columbia and notched several charting singles, among them the 1970 Top 30 entry “A Girl Who’ll Satisfy Her Man,” the 1972 Top 40 track “Color My World,” and that same year’s “Teddy Bear Song.” The last of these held the top spot for two weeks, crossed onto the pop charts, earned Fairchild a Grammy nomination, and eventually became her signature number. Chart momentum persisted through the late ’70s, bringing the Top 15 single “Cheatin’ Is.” In 1982 she wed evangelical singer/songwriter Milton Carroll in San Antonio, TX. A short-lived Nashville comeback effort later proved unsuccessful. Fairchild joined the gospel ensemble Heirloom in 1989; the group issued several albums during the early ’90s. Her own first solo gospel project, The Light, appeared in 1991 and generated the hits “Turn Right and Then Go Straight” and “Mary Washed His Feet.” By then her initial marriage had ended. She performed a handful of shows in Branson, MO, the country/gospel entertainment destination. Strong audience response prompted her to relocate there and secure a steady slot on the Mel Tillis show. She later remarried and began singing and touring with her new husband, Roy Morris. The pair issued inspirational albums, among them 2001’s For God & Country, which included the track “Burning Bush [God Used a Burning Bush Before],” and 2002’s Wings of a Dove. During the Christmas season Fairchild and Morris staged their own Branson production while continuing to tour the United States.