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Doug Oldham Passes Away

This press release was taken from the ChristianExaminer.com:

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Dove Award-winning gospel singing veteran Doug Oldham passed away on July 21 at a Charlottesville, Va., hospital awaiting surgery for a back injury sustained about a week ago. He had been in declining health in recent years. He was 79 years old.

With a music career that spanned more than 50 years, Oldham may have been best known for his weekly appearances with the late Rev. Jerry Falwell on The Old Time Gospel Hour television program that began in the early ‘70s and continued much of his career.

Falwell once wrote, "He has sung for presidents and royalty. Doug Oldham is as fine a singer as there is and he is a master communicator. But the important thing to me is that he has remained true to his Lord and his calling.”

Oldham began singing in the early ‘60s at tent revival meetings where his father preached. He soon met a young songwriter named Bill Gaither and they began to travel on weekends with Gaither playing the piano and Oldham singing the songs Gaither and his wife Gloria were writing.

According to the Gospel Music Association, Oldham was the first person to ever sing and record “He Touched Me,” one of the most famous songs ever written by Gaither—a song later recorded by Elvis Presley.

In 2006, Oldham was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

In a 2007 interview with the Liberty Journal, Bill Gaither said, “Not all awards are historic, but I think that particular one was because of the major contribution he made. It was a very deserving moment.”

Gaither called his friend a “unique communicator, with a great heart.”

“People liked him because he sang with such feeling,” Gaither said. “His spirit in spite of his bad health is amazing to me. The optimism I hear in his voice in spite of the fact I know he has endured a lot of pain with his back is amazing.”

Over the course of his five-decade career, Oldham recorded more than 65 albums and performed for former presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush, Sr.

Oldham was known around the world, with fans from Canada to Holland, where he was at one time No. 1 in gospel music, to all across England, where he sang for the queen.

In 2007, Liberty University named a recital hall after him and set up a scholarship fund in his honor at the Center for Worship.

Oldham and his wife of nearly 60 years Laura Lee lived in Lynchburg, Va.

Many of Oldham’s original recordings have been digitally remastered and are available on CD at http://www.dougoldham.com.