Rosa nell speer powell biography of michael

The Lawrence County Historical Society met Aug. 22 at the Southern Tennessee Higher Education Center. The meeting was called to order by President Curtis Peters and the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag was led by Lynn Pettus.

The speaker for the meeting was William “Will” Pettus, who presented a program on the Speer Family and Southern Gospel Music, specifically the time they spent in Lawrence County, which was about 12 years from 1929 to 1941. 

Will has a strong interest in Southern Gospel Music here in Lawrence County since both of his grandmothers played piano and lived during the heyday of the local Vaughan School of Music. He is related to the Speer family on his maternal grandmother’s side of the family. His great-grandmother was a sister to Lena “Mom” Speer.

Will said, “Lena Brock Speer had a sister named Calera Brock who became a Denson, and she had a daughter named Martha Jewell Denson, who had a daughter named Lynn Boston Pettus, who had me.” 

The Speer Family was a gospel music group that sang from 1921 in their earliest days up to 1998 when they finally had to stop traveling in their old age.

Though G.T. “Dad” Speer lived in Alabama and the Speer family’s beginnings were in Alabama, Mom and Dad Speer met in Lawrence County, Tennessee around 1918. “Mom” Speer, Lena Brock at the time, was in a church in Leoma at a church singing, not very far from where she grew up on Rabbit Trail Road in the Center Point community. A slightly older guy comes and sits behind her and she notices immediately. Once they begin singing, he notices her and her lovely voice. She begs her dad to invite him over after the singing and he does. After that point, Tom Speer returned home to Alabama and they constantly sent letters to one another. Finally, one day Lena’s dad, Charles Albert “C.A.” Brock, arranged a singing school in the area of Alabama where Tom lived and took Lena along as the piano player. Tom and Lena were reunited and there was no stopping them from that point! “Dad” Speer said, “I met a singer’s daughter at a singing convention, got married in a singer’s home, and raised a singing family.” C.A. Brock was a music teacher, taught his children music, and led singing in various locations making this marriage of G.T. and Lena a perfect musical marriage. C.A. Brock also founded Center Point Methodist Church in Lawrence County.

While living as their neighbors in Alabama, my mother repeated over the years that “Dad” Speer lightheartedly said, “When we have enough children for a quartet, we will stop having children.” My mother’s sister, Aunt Trannie Smith Hughes who was age 10, stayed with the Speers for a few days to help Mom Speer with Brock when he was born in 1920. Rosa Nell was born in 1922, Mary Tom in 1925, and Ben in 1930.

“Dad” Speer was plowing on his farm in Alabama and a clevis snapped. That was the final blow for him. He thought about the four-mile walk to where he might be able to buy a new one, and instead, he decided it was time to pray. “God, if you’ll help me sell this farm and if you’ll help me make a living for my family in the gospel music business, I’ll never walk behind the plow again.”

The Speers began in Alabama as a quartet including Lena “Mom” Brock Speer; George Thomas “G.T.” or “Dad” Speer; Dad Speer’s sister, Pearl Speer Claborn; and husband, Logan Claborn, a second cousin to my mother. In 1925, Logan and Pearl Claborn left the group. To fill the void, “Dad” Speer enlisted his 5-year-old son, Brock, and their 3-year-old daughter, Rosa Nell, to sing with him and “Mom” Speer! The group’s concerts featured several duet songs by “Mom” and “Dad’ Speer, and several songs with Brock singing alto and Rosa Nell singing lead. As an adult, Brock sang bass.

The decision to move to Lawrenceburg from Double Springs, Ala., was made for several reasons. It seems the primary reason for moving here was Mom Speer’s parents and her siblings, the C.A. Brock family, who were well-established here. Mom Speer’s brother, Delma Brock, married James “J.H.” and Dena Cobb Stribling’s daughter, “Jim” Stribling. Since James was the town millionaire in the middle of the Depression, it might be understandable why Lawrenceburg would be a good place for the Speer family to live.

In 1934, “Dad” Speer, accepted a full-time job with the Vaughan Music Company in Lawrenceburg. His position gave greater financial security to the family. 

Delmer and “Jim” Brock obtained a nice home for the Speers to stay for $7 monthly. It was near Shoal Creek on J.H. Stribling’s land near the water treatment plant. Though it was during the Depression, the Speer children and their cousins, the Denson children, Martha Jewell, Elwood, Edwin, and Gail, amused themselves in the cool waters of Shoal Creek. 

The Speers moved from the Shoal Creek area to the Rosemont area near Old Public Elementary and Lawrence County High School. When the Speer children, Mary Tom, Brock and Rosa Nell started school here, Mary started in the first grade. Brock and Rosa Nell should have entered the fourth grade, but since their early Alabama education did not quite meet Tennessee standards, they repeated the third grade. Their first time seeing a school cafeteria was when they started school here. The first few years they did not eat any school food. The burgers and other things would cost an entire nickel so they took Mom Speer’s biscuits to school each day.

Mosie Lister came to Lawrenceburg for the two-week singing school that was scheduled twice yearly, but his interest in the music lessons was so he could make it big in country music, having no interest in gospel music. He came down with the flu while here and Dad Speer ministered to him, gave him Mom Speer’s soup and prayed over him. He eventually recovered and returned to school as a changed man who began writing gospel songs. Elvis, Jim Reeves, the Gaithers and many more performed his songs. Mosie was changed by the care and prayer of Dad Speer at the Vaughan Singing Schools. Mosie Lister was in the original Statesmen Quartet with Hovie Lister who was of no relation. He wrote “Til the Storm Passes By” the last song Ben Speer sang in Lawrenceburg. That song and so many more from Mosie Lister, were because of Dad Speer’s involvement in his life. That is just a drop in the bucket on the musical contributions from Lawrenceburg. 

In 1941, James D. Vaughan died, and the Speer family left his company, but while there, “Dad” Speer wrote or co-wrote more than 600 songs. The family moved to Montgomery, Ala., and when WWII broke out, Brock was drafted but Ben’s military service could have been voluntary. When the war ended and the family reunited, they decided on Nashville so the family could sing together and Brock could attend Trevecca Nazarene College for a bachelor’s degree in theology and Vanderbilt University for a master of divinity degree.

The Speer Family had the unique trait of being a mixed quartet, made up of both women and men. While the family members changed several times over the years, they always continued being female and male singers. During their 77 years, the group continuously had at least two blood-related Speer family members. During this time, they received 14 Dove Awards, equivalent to a Grammy for Christian music, eight for Mixed Group of the Year, and twice for Album of the Year in the 1970s. Sue Chenault, though not a family member, was a female vocalist who won Best Female Vocalist for four straight years. Their recording of “I’m Standing on the Solid Rock” has the longest tenure as the top song on the Singing News Chart of Popular Southern Gospel Recordings.

Mom and Dad Speer and the four children are members of the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame in Pigeon Forge. Since their beginning was in Alabama and they had become so popular, the Speers were inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1997.

One of the first big songs Elvis recorded with RCA was “Heartbreak Hotel”. Brock and Ben were singing on the “B” side of this record with Elvis, who, before recording, wanted to warm up with a Mosie Lister song “I’m Bound for the Kingdom”. The producer in the studio was none other than Chet Atkins. The first song they recorded together on this “B” side was “I Was the One”. 

The Speers were invited back to RCA to record with Elvis for another song. Elvis wanted the Jordanaires but RCA picked a new group to sing with them, the Jordanaire singer, Gordon Stoker; Brock Speer; and Ben Speer. Elvis was nice about it but did not get whom he asked for. There are two songs that one can clearly hear Brock and Ben singing backup. One song they did was a secular song that became Elvis’ second number-one single on the Country Music Charts and the Billboard Top Sellers in Stores Chart.

Elvis Presley’s gospel album, “How Great Thou Art”, includes Mosie Lister’s song, “Where No One Stands Alone” and the title track for this album was Mosie’s song, “His Hand in Mine”. Elvis’ only Grammy Awards were for his gospel albums and this was one of them so these three paragraphs indicate Lawrenceburg’s connection to Elvis.

Ben Speer continued to be involved in Southern Gospel Music as the Music Director of the Gaither Homecoming Series. After Brock’s death, Ben, Mary Tom, Rosa Nell, and Brock’s wife, Faye, continued appearing in Gaither Homecoming videos.

The Speers were pioneers and were to mixed gospel groups what Elvis was to rock-in-roll. Their gospel music ministry survived the Depression, World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam. They made their living through all the changes, from selling songbooks, to selling records, to cassette tapes, to CDs, and singing on the radio and TV, adapting well through it all.

Dad Speer died in 1966 of heart failure, Mom Speer died in 1967 of cancer and the group made it another 31 years without them. Pearl and Logan Claborn died in 1979 and 1981 respectively. Brock died on March 19, 1999, at age 78. Mary Tom Speer Reid died on Sept. 16, 2014, at age 89. Faye Speer died on Oct. 13, 2015, at age 86. Ben Speer died on April 7, 2017, at age 86. A month later, Rosa Nell Speer Powell, who was the last survivor of the original Speer Family, died on May 16, 2017, at age 94.

Will said this about Mary Tom and Rosa Nell, “They were lovable people…..and fame never changed them. Those sweet old sisters, Mary Tom and Rosa Nell….If you met them, they were no different from your sweet old grandmother you knew growing up.”

“Lawrenceburg will never get the appropriate credit for it but if I’ve accomplished nothing else here tonight, I hope you see our little town really was a part of something special.” Will Pettus.