INDUCTED: October 7, 2014
PRESENTED: November 9, 2014
Glen was born on October 20, 1926
Glen passed away on October 15, 1999
OHIO BACKGROUND
Glen lived in Akron, Ohio
LIFE & HISTORICAL EVENTS
Glen Weldon Payne was born in Rose City, Texas to cotton farmers Elmer and Vela Payne. He developed an early interest in gospel music. While hoeing cotton he learned to tell time from the sun so that he could get home in time to hear the noon broadcast of the Stamps-Baxter Quartet on KRLD.
In 1945 and 1946 he was in the United States Army and served with the Eighty-sixth Blackhawk Division in the Philippines.
While living in Ohio, Glen met and married Van Lua Harris on November 30, 1957. They had two daughters and a son.
Glen was the willing “target” of many of MC George’s jokes and icebreakers during the quartet’s run. George often referred to Glen as “The Old Man”.
Glen sat as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Quartet Convention and the Southern Gospel Museum and Hall of Fame for many years,
Glen was hospitalized in 1999 during the Cathedral’s farewell retirement tour.
Glen made his final performance at the National Quartet Convention via telephone hook-up from his hospital bed at Vanderbilt Hospital. Glen talked with George and the audience over the phone and, at George’s behest, sang the old hymn “I Won’t Have To Cross Jordan Alone” in one of the most memorable NQC performances of all time. It was the final time Glen would perform publicly with the Cathedrals.
He died of liver cancer at his home in Franklin, Tennessee, on October 15, 1999.
GOSPEL MUSIC MINISTRY
When Glen was twelve, his grandmother wrote a letter to the company on Payne’s behalf. V.O. Stamps gave him a scholarship to attend the three-week-long Stamps Singing School in Oak Cliff, Texas. He attended the singing school for four summers beginning in 1939 throughout high school.
In 1944, at age 17, the Stamps-Baxter Music Company hired Glen to sing weekday mornings with the Stamps-Baxter Quartet on KRLD, and he moved to Dallas.
Glen was also a member of the Lester Stamps Quartet and The Stamps All-Stars.
By the early 1950s he assumed the lead part in the Stamps-Ozark Quartet in Wichita Falls, Texas, and sang “every night” at schools, churches, lodges, on the courthouse lawn, or even in a cotton field. When drought hit the Panhandle in 1956, opportunities for performances dried up and the Stamps-Ozark Quartet disbanded.
In 1956, he joined The Weatherford Quartet, which featured Glen, Earl and Lily Fern Weatherford, Armond Morales, and George Younce.
In 1963, Glen, Bobby Clark and Danny Koker formed a trio as part of Rex Humbard’s ministry outreach at the Cathedral of Tomorrow in Akron.
When George Younce joined them in 1964, the Cathedrals Quartet was born.
During the 1970s, the Cathedrals were regulars on Sunday Morning Television appearing on “The Gospel Singing Jubilee” and also appeared in several Billy Graham Crusades. They also appeared on NBC’s “Today” show.
During the 1990s, the Cathedrals were regulars on the “Gaither Homecoming” videos and were generally recognized as the top quartet in Southern Gospel music.
SONGS / AWARDS / RECOGNITION
In his lifetime, Glen received numerous awards, including eleven Singing News Fan Awards.
At the Nashville Music Week in 1977, the Cathedrals won four Dove Awards for best song, album, single, and group.
Over 36 years, the Cathedrals won numerous Singing News Fan Awards and had several number one hits on the Southern Gospel Charts including Step into The Water, Boundless Love, and He Made a Change.
The Texas Gospel Music Hall of Fame inducted Payne into its membership in 1993.
In 1995 he was inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame
Glen, a 1997 inductee in the national SGMA Hall of Fame, will forever be remembered as one of gospel music’s most distinguished and loved lead singers.
Glen’s signature song was We Shall See Jesus.
In 1998 Glen was enshrined in the SGMA Hall of Fame at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.