Growing up, my father would say his daily prayer and get up early on Sunday mornings to wake us up for church. We grew up in a Christian home where we did normal things as a family such as traveling and even playing secular music on the radio. On Sundays my parents loved streaming the “Bobby Jones Gospel Show” on BET; on this particular show, Bobby Jones would stream music videos of various gospel Artists like BeBe & Cece Winans and he even hosted celebrity gospel interviews from Artists like Kirk Franklyn and Fred Hammond just to name a few; since then I have been streaming more gospel Artists like Lacrae, Mali Music, and even Marvin Sapp. Here is the incredible story of the living legend Bobby Jones.
Bobby Jones was born on September 18, 1938, in Henry County, Tennessee. Bobby was a true scholar and at the tender age of fifteen he graduated from high school; he later graduated at nineteen from Tennessee State University where he earned his B.S. degree in elementary education. Bobby furthered his collegiate career and received his M.Ed. degree from Tennessee State University and his Ed.D. degree from Vanderbilt University. Bobby also graduated from Payne’s Theological Seminary with his Th.D. degree. Bobby taught elementary students in the St. Louis Public Schools from 1959 to 1965, and Nashville Metropolitan Schools from 1966 to 1968. He then became a textbook consultant for McGraw Hill Publishers and worked as an instructor at Tennessee State University from 1974 to 1986. While Bobby was teaching, he also coined the idea for a Black Expo in Nashville, Tennessee, which later became the pilot for what is known today as “Bobby Jones Gospel.” Bobby also released a few albums such as “Sooner or Later” in 1978, and “There’s Hope for This World” in 1979. In 1998, he released two books “Touched By God, and a memoir in 2000 titled ‘Make A Joyful Noise, My Twenty-Five Years In Gospel Music. As Bobby’s career continued to flourish he started to, produce and host“Bobby Jones’ World,” which was a magazine-style show that lasted from 1978 to 1984.
Today, Bobby is still singing and producing great gospel content for the masses and he has just celebrated his eighty-fourth birthday. Sonnetta Joy is his legacy; she is the daughter of Bobby and Ethel, Bobby’s wife. Sonnetta started out as a singer, and actor and even played percussion instruments in a few music groups. When Sonnetta was eleven, she became a full-time drummer at her church. Sonnetta is now a great entertainer like her father and she is proof that God can use anybody for his glory. Bobby Jones is a testament to what God can do once you put your in him. Allowing God to be the head of your life makes everything flow.
