J.D. Sumner was a gospel singer from Four Oaks, North Carolina, born in 1924. He started performing with local groups as a teenager and joined the Statesmen Quartet in 1947, where his bass voice began drawing attention. After leaving that group in 1954, he formed his own J.D. Sumner Singers, which toured and recorded for over a decade.
In 1968, Sumner merged his group with the Stamps Quartet, led by songwriter Bill Gaither. His voice became central to their sound, and they recorded the traditional hymn 'Wayfaring Stranger' in 1970. That recording, with Sumner's deep bass carrying the melody, reached the top of the Billboard gospel charts.
Sumner continued performing with various configurations of the group through the 1980s and 1990s, including a version called The Stamps-Baxter Brothers. He retired from full-time singing in 1998 and died the following year.
Keep it compact: a lyric you come back to, a live memory, or the part of the catalog you would point someone toward first.
Sign in to post the first listener note. Reporting stays open to everyone.