Akers, Doris Mae
b: May 21, 1922; Brookfield, Missouri
d: July 26, 1995; Minneapolis, Minnesota
Highlights & Accomplishments
- Wrote her first song at age ten, and afterwards composed hundreds of gospel songs and hymns (some sources indicate 500)
- Had an active career as singer, choir director, songwriter, and recording artist although she had no formal training in music
- Her hymns have influenced developments in Black Urban Gospel and White Southern Gospel.
- Founded the Doris Akers Singers (1947) and the Sky Pilot Choir (1958)
- Published her first solo album, Sing Praises Unto the Lord (1957)
- Collaborated with Mahalia Jackson in writing Lord, don’t move the mountain, which sold over one million copies on disc (1958)
- Moved to Columbus, Ohio, where her music ministry was continued in local Full Gospel and Pentecostal churches (1970)
- Honored by the Smithsonian Institute as the foremost black gospel songwriter in the United States
- Posthumously inducted to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2001
Hymns included in the Seventh-Day Adventist Hymnal
Sweet, Sweet Spirit (SDAH 262)
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