Albertina Walker, Soulful Gospel Singer, Dies at 81 (Published 2010) (2024)

Albertina Walker, a gospel singer with a lush contralto voice whose group, the Caravans, recorded a string of hits in the 1950s and 1960s and nourished the careers of such greats as the Rev. James Cleveland, Inez Andrews and Pastor Shirley Caesar, died on Friday in Chicago. She was 81.

The cause was respiratory failure, her friend Pam Morris told The Associated Press.

Early on, Ms. Walker was a standout even in Chicago’s teeming, competitive gospel scene, and she became a protégé of Mahalia Jackson. With her good friend James Cleveland at the piano, she spent many evenings singing and socializing at Jackson’s house, listening to critical advice.

“I had seen Roberta Martin and Mahalia Jackson,” she told The Washington Post in 1998. “I wanted to stand up before audiences and deliver the message, win souls for Christ. I wanted to touch dying men and slipping women.”

After touring with the Willie Webb Singers, with whom she recorded her first single, “He’ll Be There,” she joined Robert Anderson and His Gospel Caravan. With the other three singers backing up Anderson — Elyse Yancey, Nellie Grace Daniels and Ora Lee Hopkins Samson Walker — she formed the Caravans in 1951.

“Anderson had an unusual, but pleasing, style of singing behind the beat, which Albertina picked up,” said Anthony Heilbut, the author of “The Gospel Sound: Good News Good News and Bad Times” (1971). “You could think of her as his female counterpart.”

The Caravans’ first big hit, “Mary Don’t You Weep,” helped make them the most popular gospel group in the United States, with hits like “I Won’t Be Back,” “(I Know) The Lord Will Provide,” “Show Me Some Sign,” “Sweeping Through the City,” “No Coward Soldier,” “Tell Him What You Want” and Ms. Walker’s great signature song, “Lord Keep Me Day by Day.”

They became known not only for hit songs but also for incubating future stars like Delores Washington, Cassietta George and Dorothy Norwood. Beginning in the 1970s Ms. Walker performed as a soloist with a variety of church choirs as her backup. Her first solo venture, “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” released in 1975, was followed by more than 50 albums, including “I Can Go to God in Prayer” and “Joy Will Come.”

Albertina Walker, known as Tina, was born on Aug. 29, 1929, on the South Side of Chicago, where she lived her entire life. She was the youngest of nine children. At the age of four she was singing with the youth choir of the West Point Baptist Church, under the direction of Pete Williams, and before long was performing with the Williams Singers. By 17, she was singing with Anderson.

Anderson, although blessed with a top-quality voice himself — he played king to Mahalia Jackson’s queen — made a practice of sharing the spotlight with his best singers, Ms. Walker chief among them. She followed his example as leader of the Caravans, stepping aside and letting her top performers shine.

In the early years, singers came and went. All the original members except Ms. Walker left the Caravans within a few years after it was founded. The early recordings, on the States label, featured tight harmonies and a sweet sound. Bil Carpenter, in “Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia,” notes that with the arrival of Bessie Griffin in 1953, the sound became much more dynamic — rhythmically precise with a sharp attack and earthy harmonies.

Although popular, the group struggled in the years before “Mary Don’t You Weep,” touring churches all over the United States but earning relatively little money. “We would put five to six dollars in the gas tank, drive all the way to New York or Mississippi,” Ms. Walker told N’Digo magazine in 2009. “We would pack into one car, nobody had a problem with it either. We would probably make $150 singing, but we would share our rewards and the money would pay a lot of bills back then.”

Ms. Walker can be heard in her prime on the album “The Best of the Caravans” (Savoy), and on the CD and DVD compilation “How Sweet It Was: The Sights and Sounds of Gospel’s Golden Age” (Shanachie), which includes the previously unreleased Caravans song “The Angels Keep Watching Over Me.”

With the arrival of a new crop of young singers — Ms. Andrews, Ms. Washington, Ms. Norwood and Ms. Caesar — that Ms. Walker allowed free rein, the Caravans embarked on a hot streak that continued until 1966, when Ms. Caesar and Ms. Anderson left the group. Ms. Walker kept the Caravans going for a time, bringing in the future disco star Loleatta Holloway, but in the 1970s struck out on her own.

Her later hits included “Please Be Patient With Me,” with Reverend Cleveland, and the poignant anthem “I’m Still Here.” “The Lord went all out with this song,” Ms. Walker told N’Digo. “I must say, I’m still here, and believe me when I say it, it’s been a wonderful life serving the Lord and His people through song.”