Hovie Lister Passes

Reggie Duncan · Post by **Reggie Duncan** » 29 Dec 2001 12:00 pm

Hovie Lister, Southern Gospel Music legend, passed away yesterday. He had the old Statesmen Quartet and was featured on the Bill Gaither Video Series.

Tim Rowley · Post by **Tim Rowley** » 30 Dec 2001 12:16 am

IMHO, there never was a tighter gospel singing group than the Statesman Quartet with Hovie Lister, to wit:

Hovie Lister
James "Big Chief" Wetherington
Doy Ott
Jake Hess (later Jack Tony)
Rosie Rozell

These guys definitely set the standard in their day and were consistently excellent in their performances, on record and live. They sure had a lot of albums on RCA Victor and one or two on Camden as well.

By the way, how old was Bro. Lister? I know he was up in years.

Tim R.

Janice Brooks · Post by **Janice Brooks** » 30 Dec 2001 11:32 am

Hovie was 75

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Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047

Steven Knapper · Post by **Steven Knapper** » 2 Jan 2002 8:22 pm

I grew up with the Statesmen and Blackwood Bros. quartets. They used to be at the old Long Beach Municipal Auditorium in Sept. around my birthday, so I alway went. Then they were back in late January. Started going when I was like 9 and went til they stopped coming out here (CA), I think that is when the Big Chief passed at the Quartet Convention in (?) '67 ??. If you ever heard Bro. Hovie talk about his playing, he said he wasn't a piano PLAYER, he was a piano Chuncker. He WAS one of the BEST. I will miss him. I am glad that Bill Gaither did all those old time sings, it may be the last we see of James Blackwood and Jake Hess and some of the old ones.