The Happy Goodmans

The Happy Goodman Family spent close to four decades lighting up audiences worldwide through gospel music. Howard and Gussie Goodman formed the ensemble in Alabama during the 1940s. Its roster grew and shifted across the years before stabilizing as a quartet of Ruth, Sam, Rusty, and Bob Goodman. Vestal Goodman and tenor Johnny Cook—the ensemble’s sole non-Goodman—later came aboard. Greatest success came in the 1960s and 1970s, when the 1968 release The Happy Gospel of the Happy Goodmans earned a Grammy for Best Gospel Album. Vestal captured the Dove Award for Female Vocalist of the Year the next year. The Happy Goodmans ranked among the earliest regulars on the television program The Gospel Singing Jubilee, a series that has collected numerous Dove Awards.