R.I.P. Inez Andrews
December 28, 2012
By Hasan James
Today, the legendary Inez Andrews of the famed group, The Caravans, was laid to rest. Andrews was slated to receive The Bobby Jones Legends Award in just three weeks at the 28th Annual Stellar Awards in Nashville, TN. The show and the award will still go on as planned.
Inez Andrews was said to have had stage 4 cancer, however, “A surgery that she was due to have would have placed the cancer in remission for at least a year,” said Dorothy Norwood.
Ms. Andrews came to national attention in 1958 with the Caravans, the Chicago gospel group led by Albertina Walker that also nurtured such stars as Shirley Caesar, the Rev. James Cleveland and Bessie Griffin. That year she was the lead singer for what became two of the Caravans’ biggest hits.
One of their biggest hits was “Mary Don’t You Weep” — a rearrangement, by Andrews, of the old spiritual into a rip-roaring sermonette. It was the Caravans’ first big hit and helped make them one of the nation’s most popular gospel groups. Ms. Andrews was the lead singer on other hits like “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand,” “He Won’t Deny Me” and her own composition, “I’m Willing to Wait.”
Andrews was survived by seven children, 19 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. She was 83 years old.
