Singing southern gospel music wasn’t popular for a music major at Howard College (now Samford University) in Birmingham in the 1960s. But that didn’t stop four church music majors — Bill Benson, Roger Isbell, Wayne Linderman and Ted Stephens — from locking themselves in a practice room to sing it.
“[The music department] thought the melodic lines of southern gospel music weren’t suitable for church. Gospel music was frowned on by many music professors,” said Isbell, music minister of First Baptist Church, Roebuck Plaza.
But he, Benson, Linderman and Stephens loved it.
“When we’d go to practice rooms where we were supposed to work on solos, we would find ourselves … singing southern gospel, and after awhile, we discovered we could make up a quartet,” Stephens said.
And in Alabama Baptist churches, where these students served in some kind of music director role while in college, “they loved [southern gospel],” Isbell said.
The students soon began singing at one another’s churches and revivals, but it was a revival in Center Point in the mid-1960s that gave the quartet its name.
“Center Point was having this revival,” Isbell said. “They invited us to sing, but what happened is that they put it in the newspaper and it said, ‘Howard College Quartet to sing for revival.’”
When the dean of music and other music faculty members saw the announcement, they did not react well.
“They weren’t happy with that. They took it as ‘the’ Howard College Quartet,” Isbell said. “I don’t think we ever told the church a name, but they knew we were students at Howard College. We got called to the dean’s office about that (announcement), because they said we were not allowed to use Howard College’s name.”
The students tried to assure the dean and the school that they did not give the church the name Howard College Quartet and would do their best to make sure the mistake didn’t get made again.
“We were not the Howard College Quartet,” Linderman said. “We really didn’t have a name. We were just a group of guys that enjoyed singing together.”
But thanks to the Center Point revival, people kept referring to them as the Howard College Quartet.
After the men graduated and went into their own music ministries, the quartet fell silent for a time.
“We still got together (to see each other), but we didn’t get all together,” Isbell said. “Everybody was just involved in their careers and raising their families.”
But about 15 years ago, one of the quartet members invited the other three to sing with him at his church’s revival. Since then, the quartet has sung together at least once or twice a year even though two of the members live in Alabama, one in Georgia and one in Oklahoma.
“It has become more precious in the latter years,” Stephens said, adding, what he really appreciates is the fellowship time they have — “listening to what the guys have been through, (like) physical problems, and how the Lord has brought us through to now.”
And these men have been through a lot. In November 2009, Benson’s father passed away and this past July, Isbell’s wife, Sara, died shortly after he celebrated his 25th anniversary at First, Roebuck Plaza. At the funerals stood the other members of the quartet to mourn and sing with them.
“It’s more than just singing together; I feel like they are my family and my brothers,” Stephens said. “Our trails have crossed and our lives were not the same for it.”
Isbell added, “If you have one person who you know really loves you, then you are really blessed, but to have three guys and their wives (who love you), I think that’s very special.”
For more information about the quartet, call Isbell at 205-335-8989.
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