“L” is for Lister, Hovie Franklin (1926-2001). Musician. For more than half a century Hovie Lister was leader and pianist for the Statesman Quartet, one of the best-known and most significant exponents of southern gospel music. Born in Greenville, he moved to Atlanta and spent much of the rest of his life in Georgia. In 1948 he organized a quartet known as the Statesmen. Over the years the group made personal appearances throughout the United States and recorded extensively for Capital, Skylite, and RCA Victor. A man of versatile interests, Lister became an ordained Southern Baptist minister and was pastor of a church for some years. As a promoter of some renown, Hovie Franklin Lister organized the Waycross, Georgia, Sundown to Sunup Gospel Sing, which raised many thousands of dollars for the Shrine Hospitals for Cripple Children.
“L” is for Lister, Hovie Franklin (1926-2001)
