A towering presence in spiritual music, Shirley Caesar earned the title "the First Lady of Gospel Music" through seven decades of work that yielded 11 Grammy Awards and 15 Dove Awards. Born October 13, 1938, in Durham, North Carolina, she was one of 13 children of James Caesar, known as Big Jim Caesar, who earned his living in tobacco while preaching and performing with a gospel ensemble in his free time. After her father’s death, with her mother unable to work, young Shirley began singing at area churches to support the family, having already joined Big Jim’s group on occasion.
She soon traveled with evangelist Leroy Johnson and made her recording debut in 1951 on Federal Records with the single “I’d Rather Have Jesus” b/w “I Know Jesus Will Save.” Enrolling at North Carolina State College in 1956, she pursued a business education degree with the goal of becoming an evangelist, yet continued to sing. When the Caravans performed in Durham in 1958 and a member could not appear, Caesar stepped in to sing a solo; group leader Albertina Walker was impressed, and with her family’s approval Shirley left school to join the act full-time.
Her 1961 solo single “Hallelujah, It's Done” blended a sermon with the music, and she began touring independently as a singing evangelist during breaks from the Caravans. Creative differences prompted her departure in 1966, by which time she had honed a powerful stage presence that prepared her for a solo path. She formed the Shirley Caesar Singers, securing a contract with HOB Records by 1969.
Caesar claimed her first Grammy Award for Best Soul Gospel Performance in 1971 with her rendition of “Put Your Hand in the Hand of the Man from Galilee.” Her 1975 interpretation of Melba Montgomery’s “No Charge” crossed over to the R&B and pop charts. From the late 1970s she ruled the gospel charts, earning her first Gospel Music Association Dove Award in 1981 for the album Rejoice; by 2002 she had collected 14 additional Dove honors along with 13 Stellar Awards. In 1969 she established the Shirley Caesar Outreach Ministries to aid Durham residents, and the group became a registered nonprofit in 1981, supported partly by her concert earnings. That same year she returned to Shaw University to finish her business degree, and in 1987 she won election to the Durham City Council. She served as pastor of Mount Calvary Word of Faith Church in Durham alongside her husband, Bishop Harold Ivory Williams, until his death in 2008.
Beyond recordings, she performed in the gospel musical Mama, I Want to Sing and its sequels, appeared in the films The Fighting Temptations and Why Do Fools Fall in Love, and guest-starred on the television series The Parkers. In 2016 a clip of her “Hold My Mule” performance, in which she lists a holiday menu that includes “greens, beans, potatoes, tomatoes,” spread rapidly online and propelled the track to the summit of Billboard’s Hot Gospel Songs chart—her first number one on that tally. Late that year she earned Grammy nominations for the album Fill This House and for her collaboration with Anthony Hamilton on “It's Alright, It's OK,” and the Recording Academy presented her with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to recorded music.
