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Gospel music legend Dottie Rambo killed in bus accident

Gospel music legend Dottie Rambo died early Sunday, May 11, when her tour bus veered from a Missouri highway and struck an embankment, reports Baptist Press.

Seven others aboard the bus suffered severe or moderate injuries in the accident on Interstate 44 near Mount Vernon in southwest Missouri and were hospitalized in Springfield, the Associated Press reported.

Rambo's entourage was en route to a Mother's Day performance at a Dallas-Fort Worth-area church. The AP noted that officials were uncertain whether the crash was related to storms in the area.

Rambo, 74, published an estimated 2,500 songs, with entries in nearly every hymnbook. Included in the 1991 Baptist Hymnal, for example, are "We Shall Behold Him" and "Behold the Lamb." The two songs and a third, "Holy Spirit, Thou Art Welcome," are included in the 2008 hymnal to be released this summer by LifeWay Christian Resources.

Rambo, of Nashville, Tenn., won a Grammy for a 1968 solo album, "It's the Soul of Me," and Dove awards in 1999 for her song, "I Go to The Rock," sung by Whitney Houston in the motion picture "The Preacher's Wife," and in 1982 for "We Shall Behold Him."

She was a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the Southern Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Among the artists who have recorded her songs: Elvis Presley, George Beverly Shea, dcTalk, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Bill Gaither and Steve Greene.

Rambo was a native of Morganfield, Ky., who began writing songs at age 8 and as a teen was signed to a songwriting contact by Gov. Jimmie Davis of Louisiana.

Funeral arrangements had not been published at press time.

[05/14/2008]

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