RIP: Rodessa Barrett Porter, the Last of the Original Barrett Sisters

By Robert M. Marovich

I was saddened to learn from Eric Clark that Rodessa Barrett Porter, the last of the original Barrett Sisters, made her transition December 16, 2024, one day after her 94th birthday.

Around 1941, Billie and DeLois Barrett—two of ten total children in the Barrett household—formed the Barrett and Hudson Singers in Chicago with a cousin, Johnnie Mae Hudson. After Hudson died at the age of eighteen or nineteen, baby sister Rodessa (b. December 15, 1930) began to sing with the ensemble, and they became the Barrett Sisters.

The Barrett Sisters with Roberta Martin (seated right)

Although the Barrett Sisters sang in and around Chicago from time to time, especially during the summer when DeLois was not traveling with the Roberta Martin Singers, the group came into its own as a professional group around 1962. DeLois asked Martin if she would record the trio and in 1964, Savoy put out the first album by the Barrett Sisters. With their cultured singing, sweet harmonies, refined performance technique, and elegant style of dress, the Barrett Sisters were from the Roberta Martin School of Music mold. On their debut album, Jesus Loves Me, the trio’s crystal clear treble harmonies floated atop Martin’s trademark piano riffs and a gently purring organ. The title track was a contemporary arrangement of the perennial Sunday school favorite and became the group’s first single.

The Barrett Sisters were nicknamed the “Sweet Sisters of Zion” for their Baptist soulfulness and concert decorum. Each of the women had music training: Campbell with the Roberta Martin Singers, Porter as director of the Galilee Baptist Church Choir, and Greenbey as a student at the American Conservatory of Music. The trio was in demand at local gospel programs, church and artist anniversaries, and funerals. They appeared on TV’s Jubilee Showcase, traveled nationally and internationally, and continued to produce albums. Anthony Heilbut dedicated an entire chapter to them in his book, The Gospel Sound.

The sisters’ appearance in the 1982 documentary Say Amen, Somebody brought them acclaim outside of the confines of the church and gospel music, even landing them on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Charles Pikes was the trio’s piano accompanist. In 2014, producer and filmmaker Regina Rene released a documentary, Sweet Sisters of Zion, which chronicled the highs and lows of the Barrett Sisters’ music career.

Here is the first part of an interview I did some years ago with Rodessa Barrett Porter and Billie Barrett Greenbey at the studios of the Reverend Harold Bailey. I interviewed Vernon Oliver Price and Loretta Oliver on the same day. Loretta is the only one remaining from the four. Rodessa and her sisters were significant contributors to the postwar gospel music phenomenon. Make sure to give people their flowers while they are still here to enjoy them.