After more than a half-century in show business, Gladys Knight proved Feb. 13 that she still wields the star power to garner a Grammy Award. But Sister Knight-McDowell (her married name), a convert to the Church since 1997, was not present at the televised ceremony to receive the award in person. Instead, she was at the Las Vegas Nevada Paradise Stake center, presenting a Sunday-night fireside along with the Saints Unified Voices Choir, a gospel-music group of Church members that she founded in 2002.
In fact, it was between sessions of the fireside that her bishop, Jim Walton, informed her she had won the award (her 11th Grammy so far) for Best Gospel Performance, given to her and posthumously to the soul-music icon Ray Charles for their duet "Heaven Help Us All."
The next day, she was in Salt Lake City for a Deseret Book autograph signing to promote the choir's eminently popular CD, "One Voice." Taking a few minutes in a tight schedule for a Church News interview, she tenderly reminisced about her long-time association with Ray Charles and about being the last artist to record with him before his death last year. She said that after the recording session, they said their good-byes; she hugged him and kissed him on the forehead.
For Sister Knight-McDowell, still a big draw in Las Vegas (she has performed at the Flamingo Hotel the past four years), the gospel has given her life added dimension. She eagerly shares her testimony at Church firesides, where her all-volunteer choir sings. In fact, it grew out of a Church assignment to organize a choir for a fireside. Working with a bishopric member, Sullivan Richardson, and his wife, Laurie, Sister Knight-McDowell put together a 100-voice group at the behest of their stake president.
"We learned the material for this fireside, and we gave our testimonies, my husband (William McDowell), my daughter (Kenya Jackson), me and Ron Strobelt." She identifies Brother Strobelt as her "seminary teacher," he who "mentored" her into the Church. She enlisted him for the fireside program because of his scriptural knowledge.
She recalled, "I said to Ron, 'You need to be a part of this project, because people not only need to get my emotional spirit, or Kenya's, we need some doctrine that they can grab hold of and really know that this is real.' "
That fireside led to other appointments, and by the third engagement, interest was so great that 500 copies of the Book of Mormon were distributed. "It was doing what the Lord had intended for us to do," she said, "just feed His sheep. Just get the word out and let them know about the restored gospel."
And for her, that means taking the word to God's children of all races and cultures. The music on the CD compilation reflects this. "Come, Come, Ye Saints," for example, is performed to the accompaniment of African drums. And a Primary song is given a soul flavor, reflecting Sister Knight-McDowell's own musical style. The album title, "One Voice," was carefully chosen to convey the unity that should characterize those who embrace the gospel of Christ.
"I have a multi-cultural choir," she asserts. That fact alone, she hopes, visually addresses and overcomes misconceptions that linger, though it has been nearly 27 years since the revelation was received granting the priesthood to all worthy men without regard to race. "He has His own business, the Lord does," she reflected. "And when you get into scripture, then you can understand that a little bit better and get out of the social aspect of it. . . . There's so much more besides that little part of the gospel that He needs for you to know, and you need to use your agency to come and see about it. And that's really what it boils down to."
With 11 grandchildren, she sees family solidarity as a vital part of the gospel. "I love them all; they are so diverse," she exclaimed. The extended family has been very close, particularly after the passing of her son five years ago. These days, they all live in the same neighborhood and attend the Legacy Ward, Las Vegas Nevada Green Valley Stake, together.
"It's a wonderful thing to have children, and have children in the gospel," she emphasized. "I shouldn't say I'm proud, because pride gets you in trouble, but I revel in the fact that my grandkids could pray before they could talk." She delights that the youngest grandchild, age 5, takes his turn presenting the family home evening lesson.
She honors her parents, who raised her in the Baptist faith and taught her to be church-going and to love the Bible. "In my family with my mom and dad, we used to have family home evening every Friday without even realizing that that's what we were having," she said. "Me and my children and my grandchildren are the only ones so far that have accepted the restored gospel, but that doesn't mean we stop praying for the rest of the family, because we know that is the way. We know this is the true Church. That's not to say we criticize any other church or anybody else's beliefs, but we're not afraid to stand up and say, as the Lord did in His time and got ridiculed for it, that this is His Church."
E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com
