Rambo, Dottie

▪ 2009

Joyce Reba Luttrell 

      American songwriter and singer

born March 2, 1934, Madisonville, Ky.

died May 11, 2008, Mount Vernon, Mo.

wrote more than 2,500 songs, many of which became gospel standards, including “I Go to the Rock,” “Stand by the River” (2003; a megahit sung with Dolly Parton), and “He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need,” probably her best-known hymn. Rambo began songwriting at age 8, and by the time she was 12, she had launched her musical career. She was married at 16 to Buck Rambo and with her husband formed the Singing Echoes, but when their 13-year-old daughter joined the act in 1964, the group became the Singing Rambos (later the Rambos). With her folksy alto voice, Rambo developed a sound that blended elements of black gospel and country music. Her album of spirituals, It's the Soul of Me (1968), won a Grammy Award for Best Soul Gospel Performance, an unusual honour for a white performer. In 1989, however, a back injury interrupted her career, but her songs continued to be performed by such stars as Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, and Barbara Mandrell. Making a comeback as a singer in 2003, Rambo embarked on a busy touring schedule. She was killed when her tour bus left the highway. Rambo was inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame as a solo singer in 1992 and was honoured again in 2001 when the Rambos gained admission. In 2007 she was installed as a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

* * *