Biography
The Speer Family serves as a central touchstone for grasping traditional Southern gospel quartet singing. They arose amid a crowded field of similar ensembles yet sustained performances all the way into the 1990s. Although personnel shifted repeatedly across the decades, the music they produced during that later period stayed consistent with the approach set when patriarch G.T. launched the group in 1921.
Born in a rural area near Fayetteville, Georgia, G.T. Speer taught at the Stamps-Baxter School of Music in Dallas and also instructed at the Vaughan School of Music in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. He formed the original Speer lineup in 1921 with his wife Lena, his sister, and her husband. At that time nearly all gospel groups were composed solely of men. G.T. kept the mixed configuration intact and, against expectations among gospel traditionalists, gained popularity. He further departed from convention by restricting the Speers to gospel material alone, after which other ensembles adopted the practice.
In 1925 his sister and brother-in-law departed, prompting G.T. and Lena to bring their children Rosa Nell and Mary Tom into the group. The daughters later stepped away to raise families of their own but rejoined as permanent members several years afterward. Across the years the Speer Family regularly included additional musicians, most prominently Harold Lane, who remained for two decades.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the Speers appeared often as guests on Nashville radio station WLAC. G.T. died suddenly in 1966 and became the first inductee in the Deceased Category of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame; his wife Lena passed the next year and became the second inductee in 1972. Over their lengthy career the group earned many awards and honors, yet one of the most significant arrived in 1981 on the occasion of their sixtieth anniversary, when the Speers were entered into the Congressional Record and received a plaque holding their first commercial record. To mark the milestone the Benson Company issued a commemorative anniversary album and assembled a multimedia presentation tracing the family's distinguished history. They followed with the 1993 release A Beautiful Day.
Born in a rural area near Fayetteville, Georgia, G.T. Speer taught at the Stamps-Baxter School of Music in Dallas and also instructed at the Vaughan School of Music in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. He formed the original Speer lineup in 1921 with his wife Lena, his sister, and her husband. At that time nearly all gospel groups were composed solely of men. G.T. kept the mixed configuration intact and, against expectations among gospel traditionalists, gained popularity. He further departed from convention by restricting the Speers to gospel material alone, after which other ensembles adopted the practice.
In 1925 his sister and brother-in-law departed, prompting G.T. and Lena to bring their children Rosa Nell and Mary Tom into the group. The daughters later stepped away to raise families of their own but rejoined as permanent members several years afterward. Across the years the Speer Family regularly included additional musicians, most prominently Harold Lane, who remained for two decades.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the Speers appeared often as guests on Nashville radio station WLAC. G.T. died suddenly in 1966 and became the first inductee in the Deceased Category of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame; his wife Lena passed the next year and became the second inductee in 1972. Over their lengthy career the group earned many awards and honors, yet one of the most significant arrived in 1981 on the occasion of their sixtieth anniversary, when the Speers were entered into the Congressional Record and received a plaque holding their first commercial record. To mark the milestone the Benson Company issued a commemorative anniversary album and assembled a multimedia presentation tracing the family's distinguished history. They followed with the 1993 release A Beautiful Day.
Albums
