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Rodessa Barrett Porter of the legendary Barrett Sisters gospel trio dies at 94

Mrs. Porter was one of a handful of people with direct ties to Thomas A. Dorsey, the father of gospel music. She and her sisters used to listen to him at Chicago’s Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church.

By Maureen O’Donnell | Dec 16, 2024, 9:57pm EST


Rodessa Barrett Porter (left) of the Barrett Sisters singing out at a preview for the 1988 Chicago Gospel Festival.Sun-Times file

Rodessa Barrett Porter’s crystalline soprano spun filigrees in the music of the Barrett Sisters, who gave goosebumps to audiences while giving glory to God. ... Mrs. Porter, the last living member of the gospel trio, died Monday at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey days after suffering a massive stroke. It was the day after her 94th birthday.

“She was one of the world’s greatest gospel singers and I had to learn early in life that I had to share my mother with a lot of people, but to me she was just momma, just momma, full of love,” her daughter Cynthia Porter said Tuesday. ... “My heart is sad and our family chain is broken again,” cousin Ron Barrett posted on Facebook on Monday. ... The sisters sang together for 70 years and became global stars after their radiant, rousing performance in the documentary “Say Amen, Somebody.”


Rodessa Barrett Porter (left) with her sisters Delois Barrett Campbell and Billie Barrett Greenbey in George T. Nierenberg’s documentary “Say Amen, Somebody.”United Artists

Mrs. Porter was one of a handful of people left with direct ties to Thomas A. Dorsey, the father of gospel music. She and her sisters — Delois Barrett Campbell and Billie Barrett Greenbey — used to listen to him at Chicago’s Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church.

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“They were one of the last generation connected to the first,” said famed gospel singer and composer Richard Smallwood of Washington, D.C. ... When Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert reviewed “Say Amen, Somebody” in 1983, he called it “the most joyful movie I’ve seen in a very long time.”



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