
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 5, 1994                   TAG: 9407050064
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA                                LENGTH: Short

GOSPEL SINGER WILLIAMS DIES

Gospel singer Marion Williams, whose music reached from the church choir to the big screen, is dead at age 66.

Williams, who had lived in Philadelphia since 1947, died Saturday of vascular disease at Albert Einstein Medical Center.

In a 1993 interview, Williams said gospel music was her calling.

"I was offered $100,000 to make one blues record, and I turned it down," she said. "I sing for the Lord, and that's enough for me."

Rolling Stone magazine has called her not only the greatest of all gospel singers but "possibly the best singer of all."

by CNB