Cleavant Derricks

DERRICKS, Cleavant. b. Chattanooga, Tennessee, 13 May 1910; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 14 April 1977.  Lister Cleavant Derricks was a Baptist pastor, a choral director, and a gospel song composer. He and his older brother Thomas Clinton Derricks, two younger sisters, Gwendoline and Ruth, and a younger brother, Van D., were born to John Thomas (Dick) and Ora Mae Derricks (née Kinamore). Though his parents were raised in Alabama and Georgia, they moved to East Chattanooga, where his father was a molder for Tennessee Stove Words and his mother a washerwoman.  Though Cleavant studied at the Agricultural and Industrial College (now Tennessee State University) in Chattanooga, his musical interests...