Singer. She received recognition as an African-American gospel singer with her deep contralto and flamboyant bluesy style during the 20th century. According to her obituary, she stated that gospel songs were the Christian's blues. Her family relocated from rural Mississippi to St. Louis, Missouri in 1918. "Mother," as she was later called was the seventh of fourteen children born into a musical family and by the age of twelve, was a part of the singing group the "Ford Sisters," who debuted at the National Baptist Convention in 1922. Her father was a Baptist deacon on Sunday morning and during the week, a railroad brakeman. Her mother managed a small restaurant. Living in poverty, she recalls her four sisters sleeping in one bed with their coats used for blankets. She began her career appearing with Dr. Thomas Dorsey as early as in the 1920s. By 1926, she was devoted to singing gospel music leaving any secular music behind. Upon her marriage in 1927 to James Peter Smith, she started as a soloist. Her career began as a gospel singer that was known to stir the congregations. With her talent of organizing, she was the co-founder and became the director of the Soloists Bureau of National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses in 1936 and actively trained gospel singers until the 1980s. One of her most well-known students that she influenced was Mahalia Jackson. In 1939, Smith joined the Church of God Apostolic where she began to influence the music department in the same manner that she had with the Baptist Convention. During the 1930s and 1940s, she toured the Midwestern States, but did not make recordings until the 1950s using the Nashboro, Savoy and Spirit Feel record labels. In 1972 she began to receive national recognition after an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival. She appeared in the 1981 gospel documentary film "Say Amen, Somebody," and received a National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1988. She continued to perform regularly at the Lively Stone Apostolic Church in St. Louis until the early 1990's. Among the songs that is credited to her are "If You Just Keep Still." She died from congestive heart failure as a resident in a nursing home. The details of her life can be found in Bil Carpenter's 2005 book, "Uncloudy Days, The Gospel Music Encyclopedia."