Monday, May 12, 2008

74-year-old American gospel singer and writer Joyce ‘Dottie’ Rambo died Sunday morning when her tour bus crashed into a highway embankment in southwestern Missouri.

The wreck occurred two miles east of Mount Vernon, Missouri, along Interstate 44. Police say six other people were hospitalized with moderate to severe injuries in Springfield. Dottie was headed for a Mother’s Day concert in North Richland Hills, Texas, when the accident occurred.

“I know Dottie is in heaven in the arms of God right now, but our earth angel will surely be missed,” said Dolly Parton in a statement. A spokesperson for her recording label confirmed to a Knoxville, Tennessee television station that Dottie was asleep at the time of the accident.

Dottie started her career at the age of 12, and has written more than 2,500 songs since. She won a Grammy Award in 1968 for her album entitled “The Soul of Me”. She was inducted into several halls-of-fame including the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007, and into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame twice, first as a soloist in 1982 and again in 2001 as a member of the Rambos singing group with her daughter and Buck Rambo, former husband. Her newest album is set for release this summer and is entitled “Sheltered”.