Mary Love (born Mary Ann Varney; July 27, 1943 – June 21, 2013) was an American

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...

and

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, and Christian evangelist. After the 1980s she was known as Mary Love Comer.

Life

Love was born as Mary Ann Varney (or Mary Ann Allen, according to some sources), in

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

. After being discovered by Sam Cooke's manager, J. W. Alexander, she began singing on sessions in Los Angeles before recording "You Turned My Bitter into Sweet" for the

Modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

record label in 1965. Later records for the label met with little success until the single "Move a Little Closer" made No. 48 on the R&B chart in 1966. Her recordings for Modern, some of which were issued in the UK, became popular on the English Northern soul scene. She revisited the lower reaches of the R&B chart with "The Hurt Is Just Beginning" which reached No. 46 for Josie in 1968, but thereafter she made few recordings for some years. Love married preacher Brad Comer. In the early 1980s, she re-emerged as Mary Love Comer, singing gospel-flavored soul with a Christian message. In 1987, along with her husband, she released the single "Come Out of the Sandbox". The couple also ran their own church in Moreno Valley, California. An album of her material, ''Now and Then'', including some old unreleased recordings, was issued in the UK. She made special appearances onstage at the Jazz Café in 2000, and at a

Kent Records Kent Records was a Los Angeles-based record label, launched in 1958 by the Bihari brothers. It was subsidiary of Crown Records Corporation. Kent was a follow-up to Modern Records which ceased operations in 1958. The label reissued Modern's singles, ...

anniversary show in 2007, both in London.Kent Records 25th Anniversary, 2007
chiswickrecords.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved June 25, 2013. Mary Love died on June 21, 2013, at the age of 69.

References

External links

Mary Love website
marylovecomer.tripod.com. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
Full account of Mary Love's music career, based on 2001 interview
soul-source.co.uk. Retrieved February 17, 2015.

soulwalking.co.uk. Retrieved February 17, 2015. 1943 births 2013 deaths American soul musicians African-American musicians Northern soul musicians Musicians from Sacramento, California 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people {{US-musician-stub