In 1953, Wendy Bagwell joined up with two women at his church, Geraldine Terry (later known professionally as Jerri Morrison) and Georgia Jones to form a gospel singing group called Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters; on the record that I have, Wendy says that the group is from Smyrna, Georgia. (The band name is sometimes spelled Sunlighters and sometimes Sonliters; Bagwell is also sometimes listed erroneously as Windy Bagwell). Sandy Garvin replaced Georgia Jones for a few years; and then Little Jan Buckner, the wife of the nephew that he had adopted earlier, joined in 1961 when she was 16 years old and stayed with the group until the end. These three stayed together for 33 years – Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters are said to have gone the longest time of any musical group in history without a personnel change.
Little Jan Buckner-Goff was inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame herself in 2010. After Wendy Bagwell’s death in 1996, Jerri Morrison no longer wanted to travel, but Little Jan still yearned to perform.
(November 2014)
