Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973)

2020/2021/2022 Inductee

Born Rosetta Nubin Tharpe in Cotton Plant, she became one of the first superstars of gospel music while also crossing over from gospel to secular music. Her electric gospel musical style influenced later stars like Little Richard, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.

Born in 1915 to an evangelist, mandolin-playing mother, Rosetta began playing guitar and singing at age 4 in the Church of God in Christ. At age 6, she regularly performed alongside her mother in the church. She excelled at the guitar, playing melodies and riffs. Her playing was influenced by her mother and by pianist Arizona Dranes, as well as bluesman Thomas A. Dorsey.

She and her mother traveled the country as part of a church troupe and eventually landed in Chicago in the 1920s. Rosetta moved to New York in the mid-1930s and married a minister, Thomas A. Tharpe. Though they divorced not long after, Rosetta kept his last name to use as her stage name. She remarried in the 1940s to Fosh Allen.

In 1938, Tharpe signed to Decca Records and had successes with versions of gospel songs by Thomas A. Dorsey. She recorded songs for her gospel fan base but also branched out to secular tunes for other audiences. Her popularity eventually landed her on John Hammond’s “From Spirituals to Swing,” in Carnegie Hall in 1938. She recorded with Cab Calloway, but the songs she recorded with Lucius “Lucky” Millinder’s jazz orchestra in 1941 and 1942 had more success. She was so popular, she was one of only two black gospel acts to record “V-Discs” for U.S. troops overseas during WWII.

On July 3, 1951, a paying crowd of 25,000 gathered in Washington, D.C.’s Griffith Stadium to witness Thorpe’s third marriage to her manager, Russell Morrison. After trying to appeal to the pop music market, her concert dates slowed, and she lost her contract with Decca Records. She later signed with Mercury Records and toured Europe in 1957 and the 1960s. She had a stroke in 1970, which brought speech difficulties and a leg amputation, but she continued to perform until she died in Pennsylvania in 1973.

In 1998, the U.S. Postal Service created a Rosetta Tharpe stamp in her honor. And in 2003, the album Shout, Sister, Shout featuring contributions by various artists was released as a tribute to her music. In 2012, she was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. In 2013, she was the subject of a PBS American Masters episode titled, “Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Godmother of Rock & Roll.” In 2014, she was inducted into The Cotton Plant Historical Museum Entertainers Wall of Fame. In 2017, Highway 17 from Cotton Plant to Brinkley was renamed the Sister Rosetta Tharpe Memorial Highway. In 2018, a marker was installed on the Cotton Plant museum’s property as a stop on the Arkansas Delta Music Trail: Sounds from the Soil and Soul. In 2018, she was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Bon Jovi, Dire Straits and The Cars.