Thomas A. Dorsey, 93, gospel music creator, dies - Obituary

Jet, Feb 8, 1993

Thomas A. Dorsey, 93, who blended blues, ragtime and church songs into a creation he called gospel music, died recently of Alzheimer's disease at his Chicago home. He was the writer of such gospel classics as Take My Hand, Precious Lord, The Lord Will Make A Way Somehow and Peace in the Valley.

His invention of gospel in the early 1920s was to have a profound impact on the religious community. Dorsey wrote more than 2,000 blues songs but his main love was gospel and he contributed about 1,000 songs to the genre he created.

Dorsey began experimenting with gospel to reconcile an inner conflict over his religious upbringing and his early love of the blues, according to biographer Michael Harris, a professor of religion and African-American studies at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Dorsey was born in Villa Rica, Ga., in 1899, one of five children of a Baptist preacher and his wife. He began playing the piano and the blues professionally by age 12, sometimes working in bordellos. Eventually he adopted the stage name "Georgia Tom" and toured with singer Ma Rainey.

He moved north to attend Chicago Music College and it was there, he said, he coined the phrase "gospel songs" after hearing a group singing. In 1926, Dorsey composed his first gospel hit, If You See My Savior, Tell Him That You Saw Me. The music, which fused the secular with the sacred, however, wasn't immediately accepted by the church.

But by 1968 things had changed. King had asked the late Ben Branch to Play it for him at an upcoming meeting moments before he was struck down by an assassin's bullet.

The song was made famous by the late queen of gospel, Mahalia Jackson, whose magnificent voice embroiled each melodious rhythm. The song has since been translated into 50 different languages. That year his greatest hit, Take My Hand, Precious Lord, was sung at the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral. Dorsey penned it in 1931 after his first wife died during childbirth and their baby died a year later. Other popular songs published by Dorsey Music include Jesus Is the Light Of World, How About You, Angels Watching Over Me and My Savior Carries Me Home.

Dorsey's work reached a wider audience in 1983 through the documentary film, Say Amen, Somebody, and in 1992 he was honored with the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (Grammy) National Trustees Awards. He is survived by his daughter, Doris; his son, Mickey; and four grandchildren.