If you were to ask me about the passing of Gary McSpadden, I could give you some printable facts. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and spent his last days at the Tulsa Cancer Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Before the actual specific kind of cancer could be pinpointed, a series of strokes prevented the treatment for the cancer from ever beginning. He died on April 15, 2020.
I could tell you he was born on January 26, 1943, to Helen and Boyd McSpadden and grew up as a “preacher’s kid” in Lubbock, Texas, himself eventually becoming a pastor. He married Carol Cornett from Dallas, Texas, at the Quartet Convention on October 14, 1962, with the ceremony performed by Hovie Lister. I could tell you that he and Carol had two children, Shawn and Michelle, whom Gary adored, and that he currently pastored with Carol the Faith and Wisdom Church in Branson, Missouri. But the Gary Bill and I knew, the husband Carol walked beside for 57 years, the dad their children loved, well, that Gary eludes the items in an obituary.
Growing up literally in church, as we pastors’ kids know, brings some great advantages, like being exposed to the Gospel from our first breath. The great hymns and gospel songs were our lullabies; our first memories were the moments when the breathing community around us was corporately moved by the breath of the Holy Spirit. But there were a few disadvantages. The expectations we felt made big demands on us, sometimes before we had the maturity to live up to them.
Gary with the Statesman
Gary grew up in a singing family, so singing was like breathing to him and his sister Cheryl. They were also beautiful children that got attention by just walking into the room. Ready or not, at 18 years old, Gary got a call from one of the best known groups ever to sing gospel music, the Statesmen Quartet, to fill in for the iconic lead singer Jake Hess. That early exposure got the attention of another group, the Oak Ridge Quartet, with whom Gary then made three label albums.
Fast on the heels of that mind-boggling success came the call that Jake Hess was forming a new group that would be called the Imperials. This was the first group in gospel music that got my attention. The harmonies, the rhythm feels, the songs they chose were fresh and new. The sound was professional and polished.
About this time, Bill had drafted me to sing with him and his brother Danny when their sister went to college. I wasn’t a professional singer by any means—just a kid who had grown up in church singing a bit, as most PKs do, but much more comfortable writing and speaking. But Bill insisted he could “make it work”, so for ten years, we sang as the Gaither Trio. When Danny left the Trio, it was Gary who came to sing with us. He was like the brother I never had. He was kind, protective, and always gracious about my insecurity as a singer.
Beautiful Carol became like a sister to me, too, and the four of us traveled every week-end for another ten years. Bill’s dad had retired by then, and he and Carol handled our product on the road. How George loved Carol! Our children and the McSpadden kids were together often and formed easy relationships that last to this day.
Our families around the picnic table at the gazebo
It was the gentle spirit and the kindness of Gary and Carol that so often kept me going when we had three kids in their pre-teen years of our own. When the Trio gradually moved from auditoriums to arena-sized venues, we added four back-up singers and some brass to our stage. Bill had always loved the male quartet sound; one night during intermission Bill and Gary and the two men from the vocal group, Steve Green and Lee Young, gathered around a backstage piano and started singing Stuart Hamblen’s great song “My First Day in Heaven”. Bill said, “Let’s try this on the second half!”
The people loved it, and the four of them had a ball singing it. The song and the 4-part harmony feature stayed, gradually adding another song or two. What came to be known as the Gaither Vocal Band was born, with Gary as the original lead.
Years and experiences have bound Gary and Carol and their family to our family in a beautiful long-term relationship. When I asked their son Shawn to describe his dad in one quality, he said, “Consistent. Consistent in faith, consistent in love, consistent in guidance. My whole life he was a consistent father.”
I couldn’t agree more. For Bill and me, Gary was a consistent friend. Just a few weeks ago Bill and Gary were planning the upcoming Vocal Band Reunion that was to have taken place at the Maybe Center in Tulsa; they were discussing what songs might feature Gary on that night.
“Let’s go in early and just you and I and Gloria and Carol go get some Mexican food before rehearsal,” Bill had suggested.
“Great plan! We’d love to!” was one of the last things Gary ever said to Bill until we talked by phone to him at the Cancer Center at the end. But there isn’t an end to the conversation, is there? It’s just, as Bob Benson used to say, “See you at the House!”
