Inducted 2002

Born December 13, 1929 in Fyffe, Alabama, Vestal Freeman became a Southern Gospel legend. 

Reared in the rich Gospel Music tradition around Sand Mountain, she married Howard Goodman in 1949 and joined the Singing Goodman Family. She became best known to fans across America through the group's subsequent appearances on the Gospel Singing Jubilee and on the PTL television network. 

Distinguished by her strong powerful voice, Vestal reached the tops of the Southern Gospel Music industry with the Happy Goodmans' popular rise in the mid-1980s and remained the "Queen of Gospel Music" in the minds of many for the remainder of the twentieth century.