Inducted 2000

One of the true pioneers of Southern Gospel, A. J. Showalter built a shape-note music empire during the late 19th century and thereby came to influence an entire generation that followed in his wake. 

A product of the Ruebush-Kieffer School of Music in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, he became a singing school teacher by the age of 14 and began publishing songbooks and music theory literature in his early 20s. In 1884, he formed the Showalter Music Company of Dalton, Georgia, and proceeded to build it into one of the largest shape-note companies in the nation by the turn of the century. Through his Southern Normal Musical Institute and a monthly journal entitled The Music Teacher, he became a primary influence on the first generation of southern Gospel singers, songwriters, and publishers. 

Showalter was also a talented composer. He co-wrote "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms," one of the most popular gospel songs of the 20th century.