By Bob Marovich
JGM learned from Gregory Gay of GOSPELflava.com the sad news that Ms. Bertha Burley Melson, one of the stalwarts of the Chicago gospel music community, passed away. She was 82.
Born in Chicago on March 4, 1933, Melson was a member of the famed Lux Singers, a gospel group founded by Beatrice Lux that at one time or another included a young Rev. James Cleveland and his sister, Iris; Rev. Dr. Clay Evans; Imogene Greene; Ida Mae Davis; James Whitehurst; and Jerome Burks.
The Lux Singers were “unorthodox,” Melson said. “Back then, folks sang real nice and smooth and slow, like any minute they were going to fall out and die! And us, we would jump around and sing.”
Melson was also one of the earliest members of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, pastored by Rev. Evans.
1947 ad from Chicago Defender.
As a Lux Singer, Melson would sing the quick tempo half of Evans’s “By and By,” a song covered by the Davis Sisters. In later life, Melson was known for belting out “One Day at a Time” to an appreciative audience, while fully seated or holding onto her walker.
Bertha Burley Melson was a gem. I sure will miss her, as will so many others.
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Written by : Bob Marovich
Bob Marovich is a gospel music historian, author, and radio host. Founder of Journal of Gospel Music blog (formally The Black Gospel Blog) and producer of the Gospel Memories Radio Show.
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I was looking for information on Beatrice Lux and the Lux Singers, I came across a photo of a young Clay Evans with the Lux Singers. Beatrice Lux is my great great aunt and my great grandmother Amelia Hudson Osteen was an organist who played for her, Mahalia Jackson and others.
Thank you for writing! I have a section in my book, “A City Called Heaven,” about the Lux Singers. I will email you about that.
Bertha Melson was my grandmother. I was her oldest grand child. Do you have any info on who my grandfather was?