According to a spokesperson at Love Center Ministries, services for gospel music artist Bishop Walter Hawkins will be held next week.
A building has not been selected, but a musical tribute will be held on Tuesday, July 20th at 7:30 pm and the funeral will be on Wednesday, July 21st at 11:00 am.
Statement from the Love Center Ministries website:
Walter Hawkins, the Grammy Award-winning gospel music singer/composer and pastor of Oakland’s Love Center Church, died @ 2:48 PST July 11th at his home in Ripon. For the last two years, Hawkins has been battling pancreatic cancer. He was 61 years old.
During the 1970s, Walter Hawkins personified a new wave of gospel artists such as his brother Edwin Hawkins of “Oh Happy Day” fame, and Andrae Crouch who brought a youthful contemporary vibe to gospel music. Hawkins cut a series of best-selling “Love Alive” LPs that remain gospel classics to this day. Hawkins’ songs have been recorded by a who’s who in music ranging from Aretha Franklin and “American Idol” champ Ruben Studdard to Vickie Winans and M.C. Hammer.
“The impact that Walter Hawkins had on gospel music was so profound and far-reaching that it is now, and forever shall be, part of gospel’s DNA,” says gospel music historian, Bob Marovich, who edits The Black Gospel Blog.
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article courtesy of 1800Gospel.com
