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Albertina Walker
August 29, 1929 - October 8, 2010
1950: Old Time Religion (Sharp MG 2000)
1959:The Caravans: "Mary, Don't You Weep"
(Gospel MG 3005) (Re issued: 1984 Savgos #RI 5000)
1962:The Famous Caravans Sing: "I'm Willing" (Gospel MG 3008)
1963: The Caravans: "Blessed Assurance" (Gospel MG 3007)
1963: The Caravans: "Seek Ye the Lord" (VJLP 5026)
1964: The Soul of the Caravans (vJLP 5038)
1964: The Caravans: "Walk Around Heaven All Day" (VjLP 5058)
1964-65:The Original Caravans: "No Coward Soldier"
(Gospel MG 3092)
1966: The Famous Caravans: "I Find No Fault in Him"
(Gospel MG 3041)
1966: The Caravans: "Choose, Ye This Day" (Gospel MG 3049)
1967:Albertina Walker: "Miss Caravan" (Gospel MG 3051)
1968: The Famous Caravans Sing: "If You Ever Needed the Lord"
1968: Albertina Walker & The Caravans "Jesus Will Fix It"
(Hob Records #287)
1968: The Famous Caravans: "Don't Forget About Me"
(Gospel MG 3056)
1969: The Caravans in Concert (Buddah Records: BDS 2007)
1969: The Famous Caravans: "Help is on the Way"
(Gospel MG 3064)
1969: The Famous Caravans: "Where He Leads Me"
(Gospel MG 3080)
1969: The Caravans: "Let's Break Bread Together" (VJLP 5070)
1971: 'The Caravans: "God Can Do Anything" (Gospel MG 3010)
1971: Albertina Walker & The Caravans: "Think About It"
(Hob Records #2111)
1972: Albertina Walker & The Caravans: "Put a Little Love in Your Heart"(Hob Records #HBX 2124)
1972: Albertina Walker & The Caravans: "'Sail Away Some Bright Morning" (Hob Records #HBX 2149)
1972 Albertina Walker & The Caravans: "Freedom"
(Jewel Records LPS 0057)
1973 The Caravans: "'Walk Around Heaven"
Re issue (Nashboro Creed Records # 3041)
1975 Albertina Walker: "God is Love"
(Polydor Gospel Series: PD 5201 & #2395 101)
1976 The Caravans: "Share" (Birthright Records #BRS 4002)
1976 The Dynamic Voice of Albertina Walker "The Lord's Prayer"
(Hob Records HBX 2134)
1977 The Best of the Caravans: Two Record Set
(Savoy Records DBL 7012)
1978 Reunion: James Cleveland & Albertina Walker
(Savoy Records #14502)
1979 Albertina Walker with James Cleveland "Please Be Patient with Me" (Savoy Records #14527)
1981 Albertina Walker & Evangelical Choir "I Can Go to God in Prayer" (Savoy Records # SL 14600)
1981Albertina Walker & West Point & Trinity Choirs "God is Our Creator" (Savoy Records # SL 14583)
1982 Albertina Walker & Cathedral of Love Choir "Glory to His Name" (Savoy Records #SL 14614)
1983 Albertina Walker & Metro Mass Choir "God Is Able to Carry You Through" (Savoy Records #SL 14723)
1984 Albertina Walker & Christ Universal Ensemble "The Impossible Dream" (Savoy Records # SL 14745)
1984 The Caravans Sing: "A Gospel Program"
(LP shared with Staple Singers) "Call Him Up and Tell Him What You Want" Reissue: Golden Gospel Classics (Savoy Records #RI 5005)
1985 Albertina Walker & Charlotte Inter. Choir "Work on Me" (Savoy Records #SL 14766)
1986 Albertina Walker "Spirit"
(Rejoice Word Records #7 OI 500628 6)
1988 Albertina Walker: "The Best is Yet to Come"
(Savoy Records #SAV 14789)
1989 Albertina Walker: "My Time Is Not Over" (Word Records # Wr 8436)
1990 Albertina Walker: "You Believed in Me"
(Benson Records #RO 2673 & #8441 82673 1)
1997-------------- Albertina Walker " I'M STILL HERE" (Verity 01241-43096-2)
Walker was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ruben and Camille Coleman Walker. Her mother was born in Houston County, Georgia, and her father in Bibb County, Georgia. They moved to Chicago between 1917-1920 where they lived out their lives. Albertina had four siblings born in Bibb County and four born in Chicago. 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 was greatly influenced by Mahalia Jackson, her friend and confidante, whom Jackson took on the road when Albertina was just a teenager. "Mahalia used to kid me. She'd say, 'Girl, you need to go sing by yourself,'" recalled Walker in a 2010 Washington Post interview. Albertina Walker did just that. In 1951, she formed the group called The Caravans. She was popularly referred to as the "Queen of Gospel Music", initially by such notables as the late Reverend James Cleveland and Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr, for her outstanding achievements within the genre after the death of Mahalia Jackson in 1972.
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). The Caravans' membership has included: James Cleveland, Bessie Griffin, Shirley Caesar, Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews, Loleatta Holloway, John McNeil, Cassietta George, and Delores Washington. Her discovery of these artists resulted in the nickname "Star Maker". Walker retired The Caravans in the late 1960s, performing as a solo artist.
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. Albertina recorded her first solo project Put a Little Love in Your Heart in 1975. She also recorded several projects together with Reverend James Cleveland. To date, she has recorded over 60 albums, including gold selling hits "Please Be Patient With Me", "I Can Go to God in Prayer", "The Best Is Yet to Come", "Impossible Dream", and "Joy Will Come". Walker sang for United States presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and South Africa's president, Nelson Mandela.
In 1995, Walker joined Thelma Houston, CeCe Peniston, Phoebe Snow and Lois Walden to record a gospel album in common, Good News in Hard Times, as the quintet called The Sisters of Glory.
Walker recorded a reunion album with her group The Caravans entitled Paved the Way, which was released by Malaco Records on September 5, 2006. Performers included Walker, Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews,Robert Estevis and Delores Washington. The album was dubbed by Billboard magazine as one of the most memorable releases of 2006[5] and entered the Billboard charts in the top ten and remained in the top forty for sixteen weeks. Paved the Way was nominated for a Grammy, Dove, Soul Train Music Award and two Stellar Awards.
On her 81st birthday, Walker was admitted to a local Chicago Hospital and placed on a ventilator. For some time she had been battling emphysema. In early September, rumors of Walker’s death had spread so wildly that she posted a message on her Facebook page stating: “I’m still here no matter what you might have heard.” At the time, she was in ICU dealing with respiratory problems–a condition she battled for years, and kept her on oxygen. On Tuesday, September 7, Walker had a tracheostomy which doctors deemed a success, and she checked out of a Chicago hospital in late September and was admitted to RML specialty hospital for follow up care. She died on October 8, 2010 at 4:30 a.m.