Roberta Martin born 12 February 1907

Roberta Evelyn Martin (February 12, 1907 – January 18, 1969) was an American gospel composer, singer, pianist, arranger and choral organizer, helped launch the careers of many other gospel artists through her group, The Roberta Martin Singers. 

Born Roberta Evelyn Winston in Helena, Arkansas, Martin moved to Chicago with her family in 1917, where she began studying piano at the age of six. Although a high school teacher inspired her to dream of becoming a concert pianist, her future course was changed after accompanying the Young People's Choir at Ebenezer Baptist Church.  While the date of her marriage to William (Bill) Martin and details of their subsequent divorce are uncertain, she was known as Roberta Martin at the onset of her career in the early 1930s.  She came into contact with Thomas A. Dorsey, known as the Father of Gospel Music, through her work as the pianist for the youth choir. In 1932, Martin joined Thomas Dorsey and Theodore Frye’s Chicago-based Young People’s Choir, and was eventually employed as the choir’s pianist. A 1933 concert featuring the Bertha Wise Quartet led Martin to develop a new style of her own. That same year, Martin and Frye founded the Martin-Frye Quartet. 

Martin renamed the group the Roberta Martin Singers in 1936 and added Bessie Folk, Myrtle Scott and Delois Barrett Campbell to the group in the 1940s. The group set the standard for the gospel choir and mixed group, and had an extremely successful recording career, featuring such hits as "Only A Look," and "Grace." Most of these songs were published by Roberta Martin Studio of Music, a publishing house in Chicago that she incorporated in 1939, and would eventually publish outstanding compositions by gospel artists ranging from Professor Alex Bradford to James Cleveland. Her first composition, "Try Jesus, He Satisfies," was an immediate hit in 1943. 

                                   

She helped develop a distinctive gospel-piano style which had a special sound that integrated, for the first time, men and women into the gospel chorus during the mid-1940s. The theme song of the Roberta Martin Singers is "Only A Look." It was always sung at the opening of their concerts, at their annual Anniversary Program in Chicago, and was recorded on the Apollo label with Bessie Folk with Delois Barrett as lead soloists and later on the Savoy label with Delois Barrett as lead vocalist. In 1947, she married James Austin; they had one son. 

In spite of a change in surnames, her stage name remained the same throughout her career. The other musical signature of the Roberta Martin Singers was the accompaniment of "Little" Lucy Smith on the Hammond organ. Her droning introductory chord and unique "passes" using the bass pedals set the tone for a meditative experience and became a recognized trademark of a "Roberta Martin gospel song". The Roberta Martin Singers sang at Gian-Carlo Menotti's Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, in 1963. It was at this time Martin started showing signs of ill-health. 

Though stricken with cancer, Martin reportedly refused painkilling drugs believing that God could perform a miracle and briefly retired from music in the 1960s but came back to record her final album Praise God (from whom all blessings flow), and her vocal recording, "I Have Hope", which was written by her friend Jessie Jimerson (aka Jessie Jimerson-Phillips). Sadly she succumbed to the disease on January 18, 1969, at Mercy Hospital, Chicago. At her funeral, 50,000 Chicagoans passed through Mount Pisgah Baptist Church to pay their last respects. The New York Times and Jet magazine were among the numerous publications that made no mention of her passing. Martin is buried at Chicago’s Burr Oak Cemetery, where fellow Arkansan and gospel star “Sister Rosetta” Tharpe is buried. 

Her group disbanded upon her death, but the surviving members continued to perform as a group in reunion concerts into the 21st century. Many of the members later had solo careers, such as Delois Barrett and Gloria Griffin, who was the composer of the classic gospel song "God Specializes", made famous by the Roberta Martin Singers in concerts and recordings.

During her lifetime, she had composed about seventy songs, arranged and published 280 gospel songs, and reached and inspired thousands of listeners selling sheet music. Her compositions include "He Knows Just How Much We Can Bear," and "God Is Still on the Throne" (1959), "Let It Be" (1950), and "Just Jesus and Me" (1966). Martin earned six Gold records. 

On July 15, 1998, the United States Postal Service issued a 32 cent commemorative stamp honoring Martin's influence. The stamp was one of four honoring gospel women. The other women honored were Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.    

(Edited from Wikipedia, Encyclopedia of Arkansas & Malaco Music Group)