BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

on the floor. During the night, Reba woke to find a rat nibbling on her fingers. Jerking away she sat up and said, "I don't want to do this. A Dierent Direction "I understood that my parents had a call on their lives," Reba explains. "I just felt called to be a neurosurgeon. They were always supportive of that." In December 1964, the young man who sang with her parents got married and left the group to go out on his own, Reba recalled. Her parents hired a woman to take the man's place. "I came home from school one day and heard them practice," Reba recalled. "It was awful. The music sounded great, but the blend just wasn't working. My mom was an alto and my dad sang lead. They didn't realize that this woman's voice was such a low alto. Two altos and a lead do not make a trio. "In frustration, I said to the woman, 'Pat, this is how the part goes.' Then I sang it. "Afterward, my mom cried, and my dad grinned. Mom said, 'Reba, would you sing with us?' "I reminded her that I wanted to be a neurosurgeon. She said, 'Would you just take a year and sing with us?'" Buck and Dottie had several concerts coming up, Reba recalled. "They would be singing with the Happy Goodman Family, The Statesmen Quartet and the Blackwood Brothers. So, I agreed to do it. "The Rambos had a very distinctive style of phrasing. They switched parts in the middle of the line. Fortunately, I knew all the parts. I just didn't know all the phrasing. "I played classical guitar. Now that I was going to sing with them, Dad had me learn to play the upright bass, called a bull bass. "Right after Christmas, I did my first concert with them. That first year, I felt so scared that I cried myself to sleep every night." It wasn't long before Reba started writing songs. How could she not? Her mother had written hundreds. One night a woman walked up to Reba. "I know you've always wanted to be a brain surgeon," the woman said. "What you've got to understand is that the words you write and the songs you sing go inside people. They renew their minds. It's like a kind of brain surgery." "I'd just started writing songs, so what she said really resonated with me," Reba recalls. "I wondered if God had something for me in music. I decided to continue singing. If God wanted me to be a surgeon, there would be time for it later." Reba was 13 when she started recording with her parents and wrote some of the songs that appeared on their albums. At 15, she recorded her first solo album, On the Folk Side of Gospel. In the early '70s, Buck su‹ered five heart attacks. Doctors told him that he would never sing again. Longtime friends Andraé Crouch and his sister, Sandra, invited Reba to travel and sing with their group, Andraé Crouch and The Disciples. She remained with them for 1 1/2 years. Sweet Hour of Prayer One night they were traveling through Nashville when Andraé knocked on Reba's door. "Hey, get up and show me how to get to your house," he said. "The Lord told me we're supposed to pray for your dad." "It was around 3 o'clock in the morning when we arrived," Reba remembers. "There were more than a dozen of us on the bus." As she descended the bus, Reba looked up to see her mother opening the front door. "I knew you were coming," Dottie told her. "The Lord told me." The group crowded into the bedroom, where they prayed for Buck for an hour, Reba said. Some healings are gradual, but Buck's healing came instantaneously. As soon as he regained his strength, Reba rejoined the group and went back on the road with her parents. In 1976, Reba said, she wrote a jazz 1 4 : B V O V JUNE READ THROUGH THE BIBLE Sat 1 2 Sam. 12:1-13:33 Sun 2 Ps. 69-70; Prov. 14:15-35 Mon 3 2 Sam. 13:34-15:23 Acts 22 Tue 4 2 Sam. 15:24-17:29 Acts 23 Wed 5 2 Sam. 18:1-19:30 Acts 24 Thu 6 2 Sam. 19:31-21:22 Acts 25 Fri 7 2 Sam. 22:1-23:7 Acts 26 Sat 8 2 Sam. 23:8-24:25 Sun 9 Ps. 71-72; Prov. 15:1-15 Mon 10 1 Kgs. 1:1-2:9 Acts 27 Tue 11 1 Kgs. 2:10-3:28 Acts 28 Wed 12 1 Kgs. 4:1-6:10 Rom. 1 Thu 13 1 Kgs. 6:11-7:39 Rom. 2 Fri 14 1 Kgs. 7:40-8:53 Rom. 3 Sat 15 1 Kgs. 8:54-10:23 Sun 16 Ps. 73-74; Prov. 15:16-33 Mon 17 1 Kgs. 10:24-12:15 Rom. 4 Tue 18 1 Kgs. 12:16-13:34 Rom. 5 Wed 19 1 Kgs. 14-15 Rom. 6 Thu 20 1 Kgs. 16:1-18:6 Rom. 7 Fri 21 1 Kgs. 18:7-19:21 Rom. 8 Sat 22 1 Kgs. 20:1-21:16 Sun 23 Ps. 75-77; Prov. 16:1-17 Mon 24 1 Kgs. 21:17-22:53 Rom. 9 Tue 25 2 Kgs. 1-3 Rom. 10 Wed 26 2 Kgs. 4:1-5:19 Rom. 11 Thu 27 2 Kgs. 5:20-7:20 Rom. 12 Fri 28 2 Kgs. 8-9 Rom. 13 Sat 29 2 Kgs. 10:1-12:8 Sun 30 Ps. 78; Prov. 16:18-33 Old Testament New Testament

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