11

Doxology

On August 10, 1990, one day before the opening of the twenty-third annual Gospel Music Workshop of America convention, held that year in Washington, DC, James Cleveland was hospitalized. Billboard’s Lisa Collins reported that he was treated for “cardiac irregularities, possible pneumonia, and extreme exhaustion.” It was the first of the annual confabs he missed, as acute an indication as any that the King of Gospel’s health was failing. Released from the hospital on August 27, Cleveland participated in his church’s Labor Day services. Toward the end of 1990, Cleveland’s friends and associates put together a musical celebration honoring his fifty years as a gospel recording artist. Among those participating were the Hawkins Family, Andraé Crouch, Stephanie Mills, Billy Preston, and members of the original Caravans. The most poignant moment, however, came at the conclusion, when Cleveland mustered up what little energy and voice he had to say “thank you” to the assembly. He had apparently been practicing all day just to say two words to his adoring public. This heartrending moment—hearing an instantly recognizable voice depleted to a whisper—sent shivers through the attendees.

The Reverend James Cleveland passed away at Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California, on Saturday, February 9, 1991. Mourners traveled from across the nation to attend the funeral services while musicians rehearsed the music that would adorn these celebrations of life. An intimate memorial took place at Cornerstone on Friday night, February 15, and a much larger service the following day at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium. Some four thousand attendees began lining up outside the Shrine as early as 6:00 a.m. for the 11:00 a.m. service. Cleveland lay atop his coffin, clad in white and bathed in red velvet—what the King of Gospel himself would have called “happy colors.” The Shrine service lasted more than four hours, as artist after artist, celebrity after celebrity, came bearing gifts of music and testimonials, Lawrence Roberts among them. In his preacher’s cadence, Roberts called Cleveland a “genius stylist,” a “prolific songwriter,” and a “master choir director.” He added that “It goes without saying that Reverend James Cleveland was a legend in his own time.”¹ “Peace Be Still” was among the songs performed at the service.

“James gave me my first mink stole,” Bootsy said, imitating Cleveland’s gruff and straightforward mannerism: “‘You need some fur, girl, you need some fur.’ My husband said, ‘That’s my wife!’ [James] said, ‘Bootsy needs some fur!’ When [James] got sick, we would go visit him. He would say, “Lawrence, of all the people I know, you and Bootsy are the only ones to come see about me.”²

When Doris Duke died in 1993, she acknowledged her friends Lawrence and Dolores Roberts by leaving them a portion of her estimable estate. The bequest afforded the couple an opportunity to retire to Stone Mountain, Georgia, where Roberts spent his days attending Victory for the World Church, pastored by its founder, Doctor Kenneth Samuel. “I love it,” Roberts exclaimed, “and when I’m not doing that, I’m out on my dock fishing, taking life easy, and enjoying life.”³ At peace.

In 2005, with Roberts in Georgia and First Baptist Church in new hands, the Angelic Choir decided to formally retire, but not before holding one final reunion at the church. The June 19, 2005, program was the last time the original choir and its longstanding director sang together. They held emotional rehearsals for days prior to the performance, which itself resulted in shouts of joy, tears of memory, and, for Freeman Johnson, a roof-raising “hallelujah time.”⁴ To Roberts, working with the Angelic Choir was “thirty- eight of the most golden years of my life.”⁵

Three years later, Roberts, too, was gone. He took his last breath on Monday, July 14, 2008. The funeral service was held at Victory for the World Church in Stone Mountain, Georgia. It is intriguing to note that, of all the songs Roberts could have chosen to accompany the procession of his coffin out of the church and into the hearse, he wanted the Silver Convention’s 1975 disco hit “Fly Robin Fly.” It was his wish from the moment he first heard it, Yvonne Walls remembered.⁶ His sense of humor intact even unto death, the Reverend Lawrence Curtis Roberts was buried in Melwood Cemetery in Stone Mountain. Dolores, the Roberts children, and their families still reside in Stone Mountain.

A tribute program took place at Greater Abyssinian Baptist Church in Newark on Saturday afternoon, September 13, 2008. Members of the Angelic Choir sang “One of These Days I’ll Cross That River” as the family processed into the church. Guest artists included Cissy Houston and the Reverend Doctor Stefanie Minatee and her Jubilation choir. “Peace Be Still” and “I Shall Wear a Crown” were among the musical selections. Toward the end, Raymond Murphy led a group of singers, including Pearl and Stefanie Minatee and Freeman Johnson, in a musical tribute to Bootsy. Donnie Harper of the New Jersey Mass Choir and the Reverend Charles Banks were among a litany of speakers who paid their respects publicly to their colleague and friend.⁷

Reverend Roberts “was all things to all people,” recalled Angelic Choir member Lorraine Stancil. “He was Godly proud of his abilities to do what he did, what he was called to do, but never boastful. Confident in his giftedness. He was full of wisdom and could turn any conversation into something you would be so engrossed in, you could burn your dinner. That’s who he was. And whatever challenges he had, he didn’t wear them. [That’s] not to say that he was never angry or disappointed or hurt. Some of those things I did see, but they never overshadowed the phenomenal man he was.”⁸Added Phyllis Morris, “I think that most people felt our music because it meant something to them. We recorded in the church during the church services so you know it was real, you could feel it. As Reverend Roberts would say, it will give you a lift that will last.”⁹

Although many of the original Angelic Choir members have passed on as of this writing, seven or eight still attend First Baptist Church with fidelity, including Phyllis Morris and Inez Reid. “We don’t have quite as many people in the congregation as we had years ago,” Reid said, “but we still have a nice congregation. We have a wonderful preacher now, Reverend Brian Evans. He directs the choir like Reverend Roberts did and he’s a good singer and a very good speaker.”¹⁰

In 2009 Roberts was inducted into the Nutley (NJ) Hall of Fame.¹¹And until her death on March 1, 2019, Roberts’s longtime friend, the musician Gertrude Deadwyler Hicks, could be found on Sundays in Newark, back where it all started, accompanying the Zion Hill Baptist Church choir on piano. “I don’t try to sing though,” she said in October 2017. “Only if the spirit of the Lord comes in will I sing. And I can’t get up and get my shout in. All I can do is tap my feet.” She added with a sly grin: “But I’m still bringin’ it.”¹²