The prolific writer of thousands of songs, Dottie Rambo is known as the queen
of gospel music. Her hymns have been recorded by Elvis Presley, Whitney
Houston, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sandi Patty, Connie Smith, the Oak Ridge Boys and
many more. The enduring strength of her catalog is proven each week across the
country as church choirs, congregations and soloists sing her words and
melodies.
Born Joyce Reba Luttrell, she began writing songs at age eight, sitting by a
creek near her Kentucky home. She was soon singing in churches and on local
radio, and she left home at age 12, intent on singing and writing music. At 16,
she married Buck Rambo, with whom she later formed the Singing Rambos with
daughter Reba. Louisiana Governor Jimmie Davis, author of "You Are My
Sunshine," signed her to his music-publishing firm when Rambo was still a teen,
and in 1968 she won a Grammy Award for her solo album It's the Soul of
Me.
Although the Singing Rambos had great successes in the 1970s, including the
popular children's album Down by the Creek Bank (1978), health problems
kept Rambo from the touring circuit for years. She remained active as a
songwriter during that period, penning numerous songs that are now included in
church hymnals. Her "We Shall Behold Him" won a Gospel Music Association Song
of the Year award, and she received another such prize in 1999 for "I Go to the
Rock," sung by Whitney Houston in the movie The Preacher's Wife. In
1994, Rambo became the Christian Country Music Association's Songwriter of the
Century, and she won that organization's songwriter of the year trophy in 1994
and 2004. She received the ASCAP Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award in
2001 and is a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, both as a soloist and as
a member of the Rambos.
Rambo returned to touring in 2002, and her 2003 comeback album, Stand by the
River, featured a title track duet with Dolly Parton that topped Christian
music charts and won industry awards. Inducted into the Nashville Songwriters
Hall of Fame in 2007, she died in 2008 when her tour bus crashed on the way to
a Mother's Day show in Texas. She was honored with a Music City Walk of Fame
star in 2011.
