April 21, 1924 – January 16, 1973

credit:www.sas.upenn.edu

Clara Mae Ward was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 21, 1924 after her mother and father, hoping to find a better life in the north, relocated to Philadelphia attempting to escape the poverty and hard times they experienced in rural South Carolina. Gertrude Ward, Clara’s mother, founded the Ward Singers in 1931 as a family group, then called variously The Consecrated Gospel Singers or The Ward Trio, consisting of herself, her youngest daughter Clara, and her elder daughter Willa. The Ward Singers began touring nationally in 1943, after making a memorable appearance at the National Baptist Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that year. Henrietta Waddy joined the group in 1947 after Willa Ward retired; she added a rougher alto and the enthusiastic stage manners taken from her South Carolina church background. The group’s performance style, such as the mimed packing of suitcases as part of the song “Packin’ Up”, may have been condemned by some purists as “clowning” but was wildly popular with their audiences.
The addition of Marion Williams, who came out of the Pentecostal tradition growing up in Miami, Florida, brought even more to the group.

By 1950, Clara Ward and the Famous Ward Singers of Philadelphia made their first appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York City on a gospel program titled Negro Music Festival, produced by gospel music pioneer Joe Bostic, sharing the stage with Mahalia Jackson and appearing there at Carnegie Hall on Bostic’s program again in 1952.

Ward’s poor health forced her to retire in the early 1970s. She died after two strokes in 1973. Aretha Franklin and Rev. C. L. Franklin sang at her funeral in Philadelphia in 1973; Marion Williams sang at her second memorial service held days later in Los Angeles, California.

Clara Ward is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Bio Credit:www.clarawardsingers.com – Wikipedia