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FOWLER, Wally

(b 15 Feb. '17, Bartow Co. GA; d 3 June '94) Singer, songwriter, band leader and promoter, one of the leading lights of southern white gospel music. Singing gospel in local church at 6, he was leader of a gospel quartet in Rome GA in his teens and became member of John Daniel Quartet singing baritone, first gospel quartet to become members of Grand Ole Opry '40. Scored as country songwriter with "Mommy Please Stay Home With Me Tonight' '44 (Eddy Arnold), "I'm Sending You Red Roses' '44 (Jimmy Wakeley), etc. Formed the Georgia Clodhoppers '44, performing on Knoxville's WNOX's Mid-Day Merry Go Round along with Chet Atkins; signed to Capitol '45, recorded in Atlanta with Atkins playing first session. Part of the Clodhoppers was a gospel quartet known as the Harmony Quartet; they gigged around Oak Ridge, where the atomic bomb was developed, changed their name to the Oak Ridge Quartet and played the Opry under that name three weeks after the first bomb was dropped in Japan. Early members of the Oak Ridge Quartet incl. Neal Mathews Jr. (who later joined the Jordanaires), Zeb and Zeke Turner, Bob Weber, Curly Kinsey, etc. Fowler started the famous All Night Gospel Sings at the Opry's Ryman Auditorium '49; the quartet left him '50 and became the Stone Mountain Quartet. He imported the Calvary Quartet and changed their name, but by '56 the group had disbanded. Fowler formed a new Oak Ridge Quartet around his protege Smitty Gatlin, who eventually became the owner of the group's name; by the early '60s they had become the Oak Ridge Boys. Though Fowler tried unsuccessfully to form new Oak Ridge Quartets, he was prevented by Gatlin and the new members of the Oak Ridge Boys (incl. William Lee Golden) who became a top country act of the '70s and '80s. Fowler continued to record gospel albums for Decca, Starday and King, and Wally Fowler Sings A Tribute To Elvis '77 on Dove, supported by J.D.Sumner & The Stamps. In the early '80s he moved to Branson MO, formed Wally Fowler's Tennessee Valley Boys and recorded for Nashwood. The group changed its name to the Branson Brothers and were the resident band at Silver Dollar City in Branson.