Inducted 1997

A sharecropper's cabin in Fayette County, Georgia, witnessed the birth of the patriarch of one of the first gospel music family dynasties. 

Born in 1891, George Thomas "Dad" Speer taught shape-note singing schools and sang at rural singing conventions through most of Southern Gospel Music's formative years. As a pioneer teacher in both the Vaughan School of Music and the Stamps-Baxter Music School, he had a profound influence on many of the industry's early singers and composers. 

In 1921, he and his wife, Lena, organized The Speer Quartet and began traveling to singing conventions and performing local concerts. Over the next fifteen years, "Dad" trained each of his four children to sing and play instruments, gradually converting the quartet into the multi-talented Singing Speer Family. 

A gifted songwriter, Speer penned many classic gospel songs, including "Heaven's Jubilee," "I Never Shall Forget the Day," "The Dearest Friend I Ever Had," and "He Is Mine And I Am His."