Dottie Rambo, Singer and Songwriter, Dies at 74
Published: May 14, 2008
Dottie Rambo, a singer and prolific songwriter who was one of the most successful women to write songs in gospel music, died early Sunday when her tour bus ran off a highway near Mount Vernon, Mo. She was 74 and lived in Nashville.
Her death was announced by her daughter, Reba Rambo-McGuire, who is also a singer.
With songs recorded by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Vince Gill and Whitney Houston, and a busy recording and touring career of her own, Ms. Rambo has been ubiquitous in gospel since the early 1960s. Many of her songs have become hymnal standards, including “I Go to the Rock,” “We Shall Behold Him,” “I Will Glory in the Cross” and “He Looked Beyond My Fault (and Saw My Need),” which uses the tune of “Danny Boy.”
It was as a songwriter that Ms. Rambo had her greatest influence. She wrote more than 2,500 songs, according to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, which inducted her into its ranks last year. While she never crossed over to pop as a performer, her songs found mainstream exposure through other artists; Ms. Houston recorded “I Go to the Rock” for the soundtrack to her film “The Preacher’s Wife” in 1996.
I remember going to Dotty Rambo's concerts from my teen years. I saw her in concert in Port Orchard about 8 years ago. She was such a elegant woman. She had been through a lot of tough stuff, but her faith was strong as ever. She did one of the cutest children's songs...."Germ, my invisible dog"
She will be missed very much, but her songs and memory will live on.
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