Singers to perform at benefit Oct. 18
Published 12:57 pm Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Several gospel singers will perform at a benefit sing for Squire Parsons at 7 p.m. on Oct. 18 at Seventh Avenue Baptist Church, located at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Third Street West in Huntington, West Virginia.
Admission is free, but a love offering will be taken for Parsons, to help pay for medical expenses for the singer.
Parsons, a native of Newton in Roane County, West Virginia, already had suffered several heart attacks when he sang at the funeral of “little giant” tenor singer Ernie Phillips at Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina, on Dec. 3, 2018.
After Parsons sat down, he suffered another attack and paramedics, who happened to be there, worked for nine minutes before his heart started beating again. Then, he had to undergo open heart surgery and subsequently retire from his traveling ministry.
Trinity Baptist scheduled a benefit for him on Aug. 20 to help him pay for the portion of the surgery that his insurance didn’t cover. Pastors in the Tri-State area want to do the same thing for him here to give his fans who didn’t know about the benefit in Asheville or weren’t able to make the trip so they can help him, too.
On the program for the Oct. 18 sing are the Brighter Side Quartet, which includes Parsons’ brothers Virgil and Tom; the Calvary’s Hill Quartet; the Victory Trio and Friends; Wayne Mayes of Apple Grove, West Virginia, who was one of Parsons’ students when he taught at Hannan High School; and Gary Sellards of Proctorville.
After serving as a soloist for Christ Church United Methodist in Charleston, West Virginia, Parsons began singing with the Logan, West Virginia-based Calvarymen Quartet in 1969. He moved to the Asheville, North Carolina-based Kingsmen Quartet in 1975 and launched his solo ministry in 1979.