The Legendary Clara Ward Singers

Welcome to the official site of Madeline Thompson and the Legendary Clara Ward Singers, the Clara Ward Singers, the Famous Ward Singers, the Ward Singers and the Documentary Film, Traveling Shoes: The Story of Clara Ward and the Famous Ward Singers. Under the various names mentioned above, the Ward Singers, including Madame Gertrude Mae Murphy Ward and Willa Ward are without a doubt one of the most accomplished, time-honored and celebrated gospel music groups of all time.

Their music transformed race, gender color or creed as they are internationally admired. Touted by many celebrities such as Aretha Franklin, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Reverend James Cleveland, James Brown and many others as the best gospel singers ever. Their recordings were soulful, inspirational and magnificent, their stage performances electrifying and moving, as they would astound audiences with Clara’s creative musical arrangements and the group’s amazing vocal talents while wooing them with their outrageously glamorous attire.

No one would leave a performance by the Ward Singers without having been touched in one way or another, be it in front of a packed to the rafters church congregation, a nightclub or a jazz festival—the Ward Singers defined what it meant to sing of the “gospel.” Join us here in celebrating the legacy of the greatest gospel vocal group in the world who are still dazzling audiences after Sixty years of dedicated service of spreading the “good news” of Jesus the Christ.

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The Legendary Clara Ward Singers
Pictured in the heading, from front to back:
Madeline Thompson, Ruby Ewing, Mary Ann Hall, Faye Allen Moore, Sandy Mack.

Not pictured:

Reverend Shirley LaCur	Beverly Witherspoon