Mattie Moss Clark

Biography

Mattie Moss Clark (born Mattie Juliet Moss; March 26, 1925 – September 22, 1994) was an American gospel choir director and the mother of The Clark Sisters, a gospel vocal group. She was the longest-serving international minister of music for the Church of God in Christ (COGIC). "Her arrangements, perhaps influenced by her classical training, replaced the unison or two-part textures of earlier gospel music with three-part settings of the music for soprano, alto, and tenor voice ranges—a technique that remained common in gospel choir music for decades afterward."

Early life

Mattie Juliet Moss was born the seventh of nine children to ministers Fred John Moss and Mattie Juliet Walker in Selma, Alabama. She began playing piano at six. By twelve, she had become the musician for her mother's services at the Holiness Temple Church of Christ in Prayer and traveled with her mother to play at mission services, a trend she passed on to daughter Twinkie.
After high school, she attended Selma University and received training in classical music and choral singing. She moved to Detroit in 1947 to be with her sister Sybil Burke and became a member of Greater Love Tabernacle Church of God in Christ. There, under the leadership of Bishop W. Rimson, she was baptized in the Holy Ghost and subsequently became the minister of music for both Southwest Michigan Jurisdiction and Bailey Cathedral Church of God in Christ, under Bishop John Seth Bailey. Soon she was in demand to train choirs at churches throughout the brotherhood of COGIC.

Career

In 1958, she recorded "Going to Heaven to Meet the King", with the Southwest Michigan State Choir, becoming one of the first to teach and conduct a mass choir composed of members of different churches. She received three gold albums with the Southwest Michigan State Choir, and went on to write and arrange hundreds of songs and recorded over 50 albums. She directed Cadillac Motor Company's Christmas choir for 11 years and also conducted community-wide mass choirs for the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinners.
In early 1968, Clark and Elma Hendricks convened a Sing-A-Rama in Detroit at Reverend C. L. Franklin's New Bethel Baptist Church (Detroit, Michigan). They formed a 1,000 voice choir and had gospel singer James Cleveland as a special guest. Cleveland so enjoyed the music and teaching classes that he told Clark he would like to create a similar convocation and maybe call it the Music Workshop of America. He suggested that he add "Gospel" to the title to let prospective attendees know it was gospel music only. The first Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA) convention took place in August 1968 at the King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit.
In 1979, she founded the Clark Conservatory of Music, a music school in Detroit, which was subsequently headed by her daughter Dorinda Clark-Cole.
In 1981, Trinity College in Pennsylvania conferred upon her the degree of Doctor of Humanities. After the death of Bishop Bailey in 1985, she continued as state minister of music for Southwest Michigan Jurisdiction #1, attending Greater Mitchell Church of God in Christ, under Bishop J.H. Sheard.

Personal life

Clark married twice. She married her first husband, Leo Henry Cullum Sr, on December 30, 1945, and had two children, Leo Henry Cullum, Jr. and Jacqueline Lenita. After their divorce, she married Elder Elbert Clark (1927-2001) on November 30, 1952, and had four children, Denise Darchell, Elbernita Dionne, Dorinda Grace, and Karen Valencia. The Clarks divorced in 1973. Dr. Clark mentored her daughters, having them sing as part of her and their father's church's choir, Berea Church of God In Christ.
In 1973, shortly after divorcing Elbert Clark, Clark sparked the forming of The Clark Sisters. After nearly ten years, Clark passed responsibility for the group to daughter Twinkie (Elbernita), who became the leader of the group.

Later years

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Clark's health began to decline due to diabetes. According to Dorinda Clark-Cole, she had her right leg amputated and suffered a stroke, due to which she used a wheelchair. Despite failing health, Clark continued to record music into the last year of her life before succumbing to complications from diabetes on September 22, 1994, at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan, at age 69.
She was interred at Roseland Park Cemetery in Oakland County, Michigan.
In addition to The Clark Sisters, Mattie Moss Clark's gospel singing legacy continues through her grandchildren Kierra Sheard, J. Drew Sheard, Angel Chisholm, Lorenzo, Larry and Derrick (of the Clark Brothers), and her nephews Bill Moss Jr., and J. Moss (part of the production team PAJAM).
Actress Aunjanue Ellis played Clark in the 2020 Lifetime biopic The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel to positive feedback from fans, critics, and the Clark Sisters themselves.