John Wallace "Wally" Fowler was an American Southern gospel music singer, manager, and music promoter and businessman. He founded the Oak Ridge Quartet, a gospel act that eventually became the Oak Ridge Boys; and popularized all-night gospel sings. An accomplished songwriter in both the country music and gospel fields, Fowler's composition "Wasted Years" became a gospel music standard. He was known as The Man with a Million Friends and Mr. Gospel Music.
Personal life
Born near Adairsville, Georgia, Fowler's father was the cotton king ofBartow County, Georgia until the Great Depression left him broken both in health and financially. Fowler then worked in a florist shop to support the family. He began his professional career at age 18, singing baritone with the John Daniel Quartet from Alabama. The group moved to Lubbock, Texas, where he began to write songs and first sang his popular "I'm Sending You Red Roses" in Dallas. In 1940, the quartet relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where they appeared on the Grand Ole Opry on WSM-AM. He then struck out on his own, forming a country music group, Wally Fowler and the Georgia Clodhoppers, which included Chet Atkins on lead guitar. They performed on WNOX-AM in Knoxville, Tennessee and became regulars on Mid-day Merry Go Round. Fowler later formed his Harmony Quartet, which sang in weekly concerts for children at nearby Oak Ridge, which led to Fowler renaming the group the Oak Ridge Quartet. The group consisted of himself, Lon "Deacon" Freeman, Curly Kinsey and Johnny New. Fowler moved to Nashville, and from 1946-50 became a regular part of The Prince Albert Show segment of the Grand Ole Opry on NBC Radio. In 1948, he launched his first all-night gospel sing, popularizing a format that would blanket the South over the next two decades. Originating from Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium and later taken to other major cities across the region, each show featured many of the day's premier Southern gospel quartets. Fowler's innate promotional genius took gospel music to a much larger audience than ever before. In 1949, the other three men split from Fowler to form a new group; and he hired an existing group, the Calvary Quartet, to re-form the Oak Ridge Quartet. In 1957, Fowler sold the rights to the "Oak Ridge Quartet" name to group member Smitty Gatlin in exchange for forgiveness of a debt. In 1961, Gatlin formed The Oak Ridge Boys. In the 1950s, he hosted a syndicated television program, The Wally Fowler Show, featuring Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters, The Speers, The Statesmen and others. He recorded for several labels, but in later years, went into semi-retirement and tended to avoid publicity, although he continued to promote some gospel and variety shows in North Carolina. Among the songs he wrote were Eddy Arnold's first million-selling record, "That's How Much I Love You", and "I Couldn't Believe it was True", recorded by Willie Nelson in 1974.
