download albertina walker funeral program

Albertina recorded her first solo project Put a Little Love in Your Heart in 1975.

In the mid-1970s, Walker signed with Savoy Records then Benson Records, Word Records, A&M Records, and other record companies, recording a series of solo projects, many of them with big church choirs including The Evangelical Choir, The Cathedral of Love Choir, The Metro Mass choir, and her own church choir, The West Point Choir.

Walker retired The Caravans in the late 1960s, performing as a solo artist. Her discovery of these artists resulted in the nickname 'Star Maker'. The Caravans' membership has included: James Cleveland, Bessie Griffin, Shirley Caesar, Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews, Loleatta Holloway, John McNeil, Cassietta George, and Delores Washington. In the early 1950s Walker founded her own Gospel music group The Caravans, enlisting fellow singers from The Robert Anderson Singers (Ora Lee Hopkins, Elyse Yancey and Nellie Grace Daniels). Jackson, Sr, for her outstanding achievements within the genre after the death of Mahalia Jackson in 1972. She was popularly referred to as the 'Queen of Gospel Music', initially by such notables as the late Reverend James Cleveland and Rev. In 1951, she formed the group called The Caravans. She'd say, 'Girl, you need to go sing by yourself,'' recalled Walker in a 2010 Washington Post interview. Albertina was greatly influenced by Mahalia Jackson, her friend and confidante, whom Jackson took on the road when Albertina was just a teenager. Albertina began singing in the youth choir at the West Point Baptist Church at an early age, and joined several Gospel groups thereafter, including Pete Williams Singers, The Willie Webb Singers and the Robert Anderson Singers. Albertina had four siblings born in Bibb County and four born in Chicago.

They moved to Chicago between 19 where they lived out their lives. Her mother was born in Houston County, Georgia, and her father in Bibb County, Georgia. Walker was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ruben and Camilla Coleman Walker.

Download albertina walker funeral program