Inspirations' Cook to join gospel music Hall of Fame

By Lynn Hotaling

A former local school board member will join gospel legends Tuesday when he is inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

Caney Fork's Martin Cook, who founded the Inspirations some 38 years ago and still emcees and plays piano with the group, is among those slated to join the hall during a May 13 ceremony at the Governor's Palace.

Other Southern Gospel Music personalities to be inducted include the late Howard Goodman (Happy Goodman Family), the late Bobby Strickland (Crusaders) and J. Bazzell Mull (Mull's Singing Convention). In addition, John Alexander McClung, Homer Rodeheaver, Dwight Brock, Otis McCoy, Marion Snider and Fred C. Maples will become members of the coveted SGMA Hall Of Fame this year.

Cook, who formed the Inspirations while he was a chemistry teacher at Swain County High, received Southern gospel music's most prestigious award, the Marvin Norcross Award, at the Singing News Fan Awards in Louisville, Ky., late last year.

A lifetime gospel singer and accomplished pianist, Cook started his music career in 1957 as pianist for the Kingsmen. He also played piano for the Silvertones, a regional quartet, before forming the Inspirations.

Cook helped create one of gospel music's greatest success stories, the Inspirations, when he invited some of his high school students to his home to sing more than 40 years ago.

When the quartet took the stage in 1966 in Atlanta at their first big gospel show, the bass singer was 14, the tenor and lead singers were 17, the baritone was 21 and Cook was 29. The Inspirations brought down the house, according to Asheville Citizen-Times columnist (and Addie native) Bob Terrell, who chronicled the story in his 1999 book "What a Wonderful Time," titled after the Inspirations' first big hit.

Cook, 66, was born on Caney Fork only a few hundred yards from where he now lives and graduated from Western Carolina University. A veteran of the U.S. Army, Cook was elected to the Jackson County Board of Education in 1994 and served one term.

He is married to the former Ora Shuler, and they have a daughter, Marcia, and two sons, Michael and Myron, who has played bass with the Inspirations for more than 20 years.

For ticket information, contact the Southern Gospel Music Association, P.O. Box 6729, Sevierville, Tenn. 37864, or visit their Web site at www.sgma.org. You may also call the SGMA office at (865) 908-4040.