One of the great early Black musicians to emerge from Spartanburg was Arthur Lee “Bob” Beatty Jr., whose singing career spanned 80 years and landed him in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Born in 1914, Beatty—who became known as “the Black Angel”—came to Spartanburg as a toddler when his father, a minister, took a job in the gas plant that gave the neighborhood its name.
As a boy, Bob Beatty dreamed of becoming a professional boxer, but that was not to be his future. In the mid-1930s, a group of Spartanburg singers who had moved to Detroit and formed the Heavenly Gospel Singers needed a tenor for their quartet who could hit the high notes. When they came back through their hometown, Beatty tried out. He knew their songs because he had listened to them on a hand-cranked phonograph, and his voice was just what they needed. Together, in 1937, Beatty and the group recorded “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” a Thomas A. Dorsey song that is considered today “one of the most significant in the whole development of gospel music,” according to music writer Tony Cummings. Suddenly, the Heavenlys were the “pinnacle of gospel quartets,” said Dave Lindy, radio host of “The Gospel Train.”
Beatty’s style contained a touch of old-time spirituals, some blues and an early form of doo-wop. “Everybody was using what we created back then,” he told the Spartanburg Herald when he came to town to do a concert in 2008. Beatty went on to perform with the Sensational Nightingales, the Trumpets of Joy and—for 40 years—with the Soul Lifters Quartet. He sang on the stages of Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theatre. He performed on Art Linkletter’s radio show. He toured with boxing star Joe Louis to raise money for research and treatment of infantile paralysis. Fellow Spartanburg gospel star Ira Tucker called him “the legend.”
Other than touring and service in World War II, Beatty never left Spartanburg because his wife, Ruth, wanted him home. He held down a job with the Spartanburg County Department of Maintenance and Transportation. He and Ruth had nine children, including South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald W. Beatty and Spartanburg School District 7 Trustee Vernon Beatty. Another son, Willie, became a gospel singer.
When Beatty died Jan. 8, 2011, at the age of 96, the South Carolina State Senate passed a resolution honoring him and expressing their sorrow at his passing, noting that not only was he a master musician, he was also a champion chess player and a fine fisherman too.
This Spotlight is an excerpt from North of Main: Spartanburg's Historic Black Neighborhoods of North Dean Street, Gas Bottom, and Back of the College by Brenda Lee Pryce, Jim Neighbors, and Betsy Wakefield Teter. Copies of the book can be purchased at the Hub City Bookshop or online.
