Billy Ray Hearn

HEARN, Billy Ray. b. Honey Grove, Texas, 26 April 1929; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 15 April 2015. A visionary and innovator in the Christian music industry, Hearn was primarily known as the founder of Sparrow Records, currently a part of the Capitol Christian Music Group family of record labels and distributors owned by Universal Music Group, a subsidiary of media conglomerate Vivendi. He grew up in Beaumont, Texas, joined the US Navy after high school, and upon discharge in 1948 he studied violin at Baylor University, Waco, Texas. The Korean War interrupted his studies, and he served in the Navy for another two years. After completing his degree at Baylor (BM in church music, 1954), he was...