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	BEVERLY KEEL Columnist beverly@tennessean.com Phone: 615-259-8073 | Fax: 615-259-8057 Mail: 100 Broadway | Nashville, TN 37203 Beverly's column is published Sunday through Friday

GOSPEL GREATS GATHER TO HONOR DOTTIE RAMBO
by Beverly Keel / The Tennessean

posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | Gospel artist Gloria Gaither offers remarks during the funeral service for gospel singer Dottie Rambo. May 19, 2008 (photo GEORGE WALKER IV / THE TENNESSEAN)

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Since gospel legend Dottie Rambo, 74,had been plagued with health problems for two decades, many assumed her fragile, slight body would just finally give out. A more fitting ending to the life of the musical poet and prophet would have been one final performance on a big stage — the Kennedy Center, perhaps — followed by an eternal, peaceful slumber.

So the thought of Dottie's precious life being claimed in the May 11 fatal bus accident in Missouri was just too much for many of the 2,000 heavy-hearted mourners to bear on Monday as they entered Christ Church Nashville to honor her memory.

Dottie was gearing up to release her new album, Sheltered, this summer. A stunning image taken by photographer Aaron Crisler for her album package rested behind her shiny wooden casket, which was adorned with red roses.

But in death, as she did in life — beginning at age 8, when she wrote her first song on a Kentucky creek bank — Dottie quickly healed the broken hearts through her music. There could truly be no sorrow for Dottie — only sympathy for those hurting over her death — for those who believe in the tenets of Christianity. The crowd's spirits seemed to lift as people were reminded that she is now where she has always longed to be: with her Lord in heaven, where her back no longer hurts and her heart no longer aches with the disappointments of an earthly life.

"Probably when she stepped into that dimension, she said, 'This is so much better than I ever wrote about,' and she wrote some pretty great songs," her son-in-law, Dony McGuire, told the crowd.

posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | Barbara Mandrell offers her feelings of Dottie Rambo at a Home-Going Celebration for Rambo at Christ Church in Nashville, Tenn. May 19, 2008 (photo GEORGE WALKER IV / THE TENNESSEAN)

What started as a mournful memorial quickly turned into equal parts life celebration and rollicking revival, lasting more than two hours thanks to a choir packed with as many of the greatest voices in gospel music that the 250-person choir chamber could hold, including Lulu Roman, Gloria and Bill Gaither, Sandi Patty, Andrae Crouch, Babbie Mason, Jessy Dixon, Michael W. Smith, The Crabb Family and members of the Speer Family, The Hoppers, the Oak Ridge Boys and the Blackwood Brothers, many of whom took turns singing solos of more than 15 of Dottie's songs. Especially poignant were The Isaacs' sweet bluegrass version of "Mama's Teaching Angels How to Sing," and "I Will Lift You There," performed by Dottie's granddaughters, Destiny Rambo McGuire and Dionne Dismuke. There was laughter and there were tears, as well as a sea of hands raised to praise God.

Dottie, one of the most prolific songwriters in gospel, created more than 2,500 songs and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Queen of Gospel Music is known for standards such as "He Looked Beyond My Faults and Saw My Need," "I Go to the Rock," "I Will Glory in the Cross" and "We Shall Behold Him."

President Bush, who wrote a letter proclaiming Dottie's importance to American music, sent her family a flag that flew over the White House on Mother's Day.

She was praised for creating songs that crossed racial, musical and religious barriers. Added Bishop David Huskins, "Dottie Rambo created songs that made both saint and sinner sing. She wrote the songs that touched both angels and agnostics."

Gospel songwriter and author Gloria Gaither said, "The lady in this box had the rare gift of a poet and an even rarer gift of being capable of creating both great poetry and composing the perfect musical chariot to carry it to the soul. … She knew the song would outlive her… The song would remain."

But the body of work she left behind pales in comparison to her body of love that remains.

"She always made those of us who were privileged to get to know her feel that we really mattered and we were very special," Barbara Mandrell said. "We knew that she loved and cared for us."