RIP Arthur Lee Crume Sr., Longtime Manager, Guitarist for the Soul Stirrers

By Robert M. Marovich

JGM was saddened to learn from Kim Ruff-Moore and Jeffery Moore Sr. (New Consolers) that Arthur Crume of the Soul Stirrers passed away on December 12, 2023. She said that he died in Savannah Memorial Hospital after a brief illness.

Born in Swift, Missouri, on July 6, 1929, Arthur Lee Crume was the sixth child of a family born to Dillard Sr. and Lonia Crume. The family ultimately grew to a total of eleven children—three girls and eight boys (some sources cite only two girls, possibly omitting Bernice, who died from injuries suffered in a fire the year Arthur was born).

Arthur started singing at an early age and at thirteen joined his brothers in a group called the Crume Brothers. The Crume Brothers, by now living in Chicago, consisted of six of the eight male siblings. Although the group initially sang unaccompanied, they became famous for incorporating electric guitar in their music in the early 1950s when LeRoy and Arthur taught themselves to play the guitar. It is said that the Crume Brothers were the first quartet in Chicago to incorporate the electric guitar in its accompaniment.

Not only did the Crume Brothers sing and record gospel music, including for their own label, Crumco, but they also cut R&B discs for Vee-Jay Records in 1958, Peacock in 1962, Atco in 1965, and Chess/Checker in 1968.

In addition to working with his brothers, Arthur began playing guitar for and singing with other gospel groups around Chicago and elsewhere. Among these groups were the Blind Boys of Mississippi, the Pilgrim Jubilees, the Swan Silvertones, the Sensational Nightingales, and many years with the Highway QCs (his brother Ray preceded him in the QCs). Starting in 1965, Arthur joined the Soul Stirrers, where his brother Leroy had held court since 1955, when the Stirrers were on the top of the quartet world with dynamic lead vocalists Sam Cooke and Paul Foster. Arthur’s first recording session with the Stirrers was in November 1965, when the group released a holiday single called “Christmas Joy.”

Eventually, brothers Rufus and Dillard Jr. joined the Stirrers; it was as if the Crume Brothers morphed into the Soul Stirrers. With lead vocalists such as Willie Rogers, Martin Jacox, and brother Dillard, the Stirrers didn’t call on Arthur for solos, but he more than held his own in the background harmonies and kept the rhythm going with the guitar. In 1974, Arthur became the manager of the Soul Stirrers and eventually surpassed everyone, save J. J. Farley, in terms of the number of years of membership in the quartet.

Arthur Crume worked with Donna J. Bosn to write his memoir, The Perfect Song, published in 2010. The impact of the Crume brothers on Black music is worthy of its own study.

We extend our sympathies to the Crume Family as well as Arthur’s friends and many fans.

Arthur has gone, but do not fear; he is with God, and God is near.