Walter Hawkins Passes at 61
May 18, 1949 – July 11, 2010
Walter Hawkins died on Sunday evening losing his long and excruciating battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 61. The news was reported by his brother Edwin who will truly miss his brother and stated that he suffered bravely but will suffer no more
Hawkins was born in Oakland and began singing in gospel choirs as a teenager, along with his brothers. In 1967, as a member of the Edwin Hawkins Singers, he recorded “Oh Happy Day,” which would become one of the first gospel-leaning songs to cross over to the mainstream, winning a Grammy and being named one of the RIAA’s Songs of the Century. This song has many renditions and was one of the major scenes in Movie Sister Act II starring Whoopi Goldberg
Following the success of “Day,” Hawkins enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied for his divinity degree. While at the university, he also recorded his first solo album, titled Do Your Best, in 1972. The following year, he became a pastor and founded the Love Center Church in Oakland, where he also formed the Love Center Choir.
With the choir, he recorded a successful series of albums called Love Alive, which topped the Billboard Gospel Albums charts from the 1970s until the ’90s. The fourth installment, released in 1990, stayed at #1 for an astonishing 33 consecutive weeks. As a songwriter and composer, Hawkins worked with the likes of Van Morrison and Diahann Carroll and was responsible for more than 100 hit songs on the gospel charts.
Hawkins music career would earn him 9 Grammy nominations although he only won one grammy for Oh Happy Day. He won 3 Dove awards and is an inductee in to the Christian Music Hall of Fame. There has be talk of Mr Hawkins working on a brand new Love Alive album, due to be released in the fall however with his untimely death it is uncertain if that project will materialize this year.
We would like to take time out to honor Walter Hawkins and keep his memory alive and his family in your prayers.
