Rev. Julius "June" Cheeks (August 7, 1929January 27, 1981) was an American

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

singer, who enjoyed the majority of his success with The Sensational Nightingales.

Biography

In 1954, he became a preacher but continued performing full-time until 1960. His children are Rae-Sheaun Cheeks, June Cheeks and his daughter is singer

Judy Cheeks Judy Cheeks (born February 13, 1954) is an American singer and actress. In the 1970s and 1980s, she recorded as a soul and R&B singer, before releasing more dance-oriented music in the 1990s. Cheeks performed with Ike & Tina Turner as an Ikette ...

Musical career

Cheeks began singing in the second grade, quitting school to pick cotton and work service stations. He joined a local gospel group dubbed the Baronets and in 1946 he was spotted by the Rev. B.L. Parks, a former Dixie Hummingbird and tapped to join a group called the Nightingales. At the height of their popularity they cut several sides for Decca Records. To make ends meet Cheeks briefly joined the Soul Stirrers, rejoining the Nightingales during the early 1950s. During the 1950s, the Nightingales had a number of hits including "Somewhere to Lay My Head" and "The Last Mile of the Way". Due to popularity, they rechristened themselves the Sensational Nightingales. In the 1950s, Cheeks was ordained as a minister in the Church of Holiness Science in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

; Cheeks, who had dropped out of school at an early age, was largely

illiterate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

for most of his life, but developed a profound knowledge of the bible via recordings on

78rpm A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...

gramophone discs. During this time Cheeks also toured and recorded with the

Mighty Clouds of Joy The Mighty Clouds of Joy are an American traditional gospel music quartet. Joe Ligon Bio: Willie Joe Ligon was born on October 11, 1936, and died on December 11, 2016 (80 years, 2 months). He dedicated his life to Jesus making many hit songs ...

.''People Get Ready!'', Bob Darden After going into semi-retirement in 1960, Cheeks returned to action with a new group, the Four Knights.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheeks, Julius 1929 births 1981 deaths American gospel singers Singers from South Carolina Decca Records artists 20th-century American singers 20th-century American male singers