Inducted 2011

Benefactor: The Chuck Wagon Gang
Shaye-Julie-Stan-Jeremy-Joe-Harold

Roy Carter was born March 1, 1926 in Calumet, Oklahoma, one of nine children of Dave and Carrie Carter.  While Roy was just a young boy, his father transformed the family’s fortunes from poor migrant laborers to Gospel Music singing legends by taking three of his oldest children, Ernest, Rosa, and Effie, and launching a career on KFYO radio in Lubbock, Texas.  A year later, the Carter Quartet had moved to WBAP in Fort Worth and became known across the nation and around the world as the Chuck Wagon Gang. They began their recording career with Columbia Records - the company they would record for over the next four decades.  Few groups in Southern Gospel has made a greater impact on the industry or touched more people than has the Chuck Wagon Gang. In 1952, Roy took over the role as bass singer for the Chuck Wagon Gang.  Roy’s arrival came at an important turning point in the group’s history.  The ‘Chucks’ had recently begun making personal appearances, after years of being almost exclusively a radio and recording quartet.  With Dad Carter now past the age of sixty, the role of manager and emcee was quickly thrust upon Roy.  It was a job that Roy would fill admirably for the next forty years.  He led the Chuck Wagon Gang into the mainstream of Southern Gospel touring, all the while following his father’s stage advice to keep the sound simple and build on the tradition that had made the group popular in the first place.  Roy also wrote several popular gospel songs; among them I’m Going to Rise Up and Meet Him in the Air, The Early Morning Hours and My Wonderful God.  Roy retired from singing and touring in the early 1990s and passed away of a heart attack in 1998.