Acknowledged as a prime influence by no less than Little Richard, the Birmingham, Alabama-based Original Gospel Harmonettes was among the greatest and most successful female gospel groups of the 1950s; led by soloist Dorothy Love Coates, who also composed many of their best-known selections, their music transcended its spiritual foundations to appeal to a secular world on the threshold of the civil rights era. Formed during the mid-'40s, the group -- initially dubbed the Harmoneers, later modified to the Lee Harmoneers in the wake of a tour with soprano Georgia Lee Stafford -- originally comprised pianist Evelyn Starks Hardy, contralto Odessa Edwards, soprano Vera Kalb, alto Willie Mae Newberry Garth and mezzo-soprano Mildred Miller Howard, their first lead vocalist.
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