Albertina Walker has spent most of her life praising God with her music, first as a founder and member of the Caravans and later as a stirring solo artist. Born on August 29, 1929, contralto gospel singer and conductor Albertina Walker, was the youngest of nine siblings. She was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, one of nine children in a hard-working Baptist family. Her mother was a member of the West Point Baptist Church, and Albertina and her sister Rose Marie both sang in the choir there. When Walker was still a little girl, the church’s choir director formed a small children’s gospel group called the Williams Singers. With this group, and occasionally as a duo, the Walker sisters performed in churches throughout Chicago and the Midwest.
The West Point Baptist Church was the site of many rousing gospel concerts during Walker’s youth. She was inspired by the performances of great gospel singers such as Sally and Roberta Martin and Tommy E. Dorsey, who moved from the blues and jazz into gospel music. Albertina was greatly influenced by Mahalia Jackson, her friend and confidante, whom Jackson took on the road when Albertina was just a teenager. When Walker entered her teen years, she began to sing with Willie Webb and Robert Anderson, both musicians with professional groups. Albertina loved the opportunity to sing. At 17 while a student at Lucy Flower High School, she was a member of the Pete Williams Singers and toured with the Robert Anderson Singers.
Between 1947 and 1949, Walker sang secular songs in Chicago nightclubs. She joined the Melody of Zion Gospel Singers in 1949 and remained a gospel singer the rest of her life. When Anderson retired, the record producers tried to persuade Walker to make records as a solo artist. Walker simply did not want to sing alone. Instead she approached some of her colleagues in the Robert Anderson group about starting a new ensemble. They agreed, and a key element of their success was added when keyboardist James Cleveland agreed to work with them. “When the producers asked me what to call the group, I thought ‘Caravans’ would be nice, since we gospel singers were forever traveling on the road,” Walker noted in the Chicago Tribune.
From the group’s founding in 1951 until virtually the end of the 1960s, the Caravans dominated traditional gospel, performing all over America and Europe and in such celebrated theaters as New York’s Apollo, Carnegie Hall, and Madison Square Garden. The earliest Caravans recordings—including “What a Friend We Have in Jesus“ and “Blessed Assurance“—feature Walker as lead vocalist. During a 1958 tour of the South, the group attracted a teenager named Shirley Caesar who was invited to join them, first as an opening act and later as the principal vocalist. The performers inevitably faced their share of trials and troubles, despite the jubilation of their performances. Hotels and restaurants discriminated against them, and in some places even the restrooms were segregated.
Nothing destroyed Walker’s conviction to deliver God’s message through music, however. “We wanted to sing,” she said. “It didn’t make any difference how we got where we were going, just so we got there.” Eventually the constraints of the group proved too frustrating.” One by one the various vocalists left in order to pursue solo careers, and in 1967 the Caravans disbanded. Over the years the Caravans’ membership has included: James Cleveland, Bessie Griffin, Shirley Caesar, Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews, Cassietta George, and Delores Washington. Her discovery of these artists resulted in the moniker “Star Maker“. Walker married Lesley O. Reynolds on August 20, 1967. They later divorced, and she married Reco Brooks from Memphis, Tennessee in 1991.
In the mid-1970’s Ms. Walker started recording a series of solo projects, many of them with big church choir. These churches included “The Evangelical Choir,” “The Cathedral of Love Choir“, and her own church choir, “The West Point Choir.” Albertina recorded her first solo project “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” in 1975. She also recorded several projects together with Reverend James Cleveland. Albertina has been involved in other projects outside of performing gospel. She was active in politics, having worked with the Reverend Jesse Jackson and organizing the Operation PUSH People’s Choir. Her philanthropic works included her own Albertina Walker Scholarship Foundation for the arts, a source of funds for aspiring young gospel singers, founded in 1988. Walker told the Chicago Tribune that her Christian faith has provided her with a full and happy life. “All the good things that have happened to me are because of my affiliation with the church,” she concluded. “I’d like to encourage young people to stay with the Lord, because if they do, he will surely stay with them.”
Time did not dim the luster of Walker’s voice or clutter the spirit of her message. She continued to be referred to as the “queen of gospel.” In 1993 she received her eighth Grammy Award nomination for Albertina Walker Live, and that same year she performed a concert for Nelson Mandela during his visit to the United States. In 1995, Walker joined Thelma Houston, CeCe Peniston, Phoebe Snow, and Lois Walden to record a gospel album, titled Good News in Hard Times, as the quintet known as The Sisters of Glory. Honor for Walker’s lifetime of traditional gospel music came in 1995 when she won her first Grammy Award for Songs of the Church.” With her 1997 release of “I’m Still Here“, Walker celebrated a career of more than six decades, and more than sixty albums. At an age when many retire, Walker had yet to lose her enthusiasm for her singing and continued to appear at gospel festivals and church gatherings around the country.
She was a regular feature at the city of Chicago’s annual gospel festival, which held several Caravan “reunions” over the years. In 1995, Walker released the album Good News in Hard Times on LLF/Warner Bros. Records. In 2001 Walker was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. The following year, 2002, she was honored for contributions to gospel music by President George W. Bush during a ceremony at the White House. Walker recorded a reunion album with her group, The Caravans, entitled Paved the Way, released by Malaco Records on September 5, 2006. The album was dubbed by Billboard magazine as one of the most memorable releases of that year, remaining in the top forty for sixteen weeks and earning nominations for a Grammy, Dove, Soul Train Music Award, and two Stellar Awards. Albertina Walker, who released more than 60 albums, died in Chicago, Illinois on October 8th 2010.