Sandra Crouch, the dual sister and collaborator of gospel music legend Andraé Crouch, died earlier this month after an illness, her publicist said.
Crouch, 81, who died on March 17, can be honored with a musical tribute and funeral at New Christ Memorial Church in San Fernando, California, set for April 16-17, in accordance with an announcement.
She died in a California hospital after having complications from treatment for a noncancerous lesion in her brain.
Though her brother’s name is more widely known, Crouch was influential in each ministry and music—inside and beyond the gospel genre.
She co-wrote “Jesus Is the Answer” along with her brother—a Seventies hit on each Black gospel and white gospel radio stations. In the Eighties, she composed, produced and sang the lead on “We Sing Praises,” for which she won a Grammy in 1984 for best soul gospel performance by a female, helping keep Light Records out of bankruptcy.
The label has continued to feature many other gospel acts, including The Winans, Walter Hawkins and the Hawkins Family and Commissioned, as noted by jazz and folk singer-songwriter Dara Starr Tucker in a social media post paying tribute to Sandra Crouch.
If you grew up with gospel music within the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, then this label itself is iconic for you,” said Tucker, who added that Crouch also played tambourine on hits of the Jackson 5. “For those reasons and so many more Sandra Crouch was a hugely influential figure on the earth of gospel music.”
At the time of her death, Crouch was senior pastor of New Christ Memorial, after her twin brother took the controversial step in 1998 of ordaining her as co-pastor of the Pentecostal church began by their parents a long time earlier.
The ordination went against the ban of the Church of God in Christ, with which the congregation within the Los Angeles suburbs was affiliated. The Crouch siblings renamed the church, originally generally known as Christ Memorial Church of God in Christ, after her ordination.
“I think that when you may have a way inside yourself that God is asking you to work in a specific a part of the ministry, that regardless of what gender you might be, you must have the option to reply that decision,” Sandra Crouch said in an interview with Religion News Service shortly after her ordination. “You don’t get a driver’s license to learn easy methods to drive. You get a license because you understand easy methods to drive.”
Her bio on the church’s website notes that her passion for preaching was longstanding: “At the age of 5, Sandra would imitate great preachers using the back of the bathroom as her pulpit.”
Image: Courtesy of Capital Entertainment / Edits by CT
Andraé́ Crouch, Sandra Crouch, Robert Shanklin and Michael Jackson at The Hit Factory in New York, N.Y., December 1994
Andraé Crouch, who became the church’s pastor in 1995 after the deaths of his father and brother, pointed to the collaboration of his parents, Bishop Benjamin J. and Catherine D. Crouch, as inspiration for his move to ordain his sister.
“He would all the time say until probably a month before he died, ‘I don’t want you ever to discuss me and what I’ve refrained from giving the identical credit to my wife,’” Andraé Crouch recalled of his father in 1998. “That’s the identical way I’ve been with my sister. That’s why I made her my co-pastor.”
Anthea Butler, chair of spiritual studies on the University of Pennsylvania and writer of Women within the Church of God in Christ remembers the media coverage when Sandra Crouch became a pastor.
“That ordination moment was a giant moment,” said Butler, who on the time was working on the dissertation that led to her first book. “They form of operated in tandem: He was the large person on the gospel scene. She was to an extent, but I believe that where she made essentially the most impact was the ordination and being head of that church.”
Assistant pastor Kenneth J. Cook announced her death on the church’s Facebook page.
“We as believers know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord,” he said within the statement. “We will eternally cherish the memories and teachings we received from her.”
Sandra Crouch performed along with her twin in gatherings that ranged from a gathering of the National Association of Evangelicals to the crusades of evangelist Billy Graham.
She also joined her sibling in work with notable artists outside gospel, akin to co-writing songs and performing percussion on the 1986 soundtrack for Quincy Jones’ production of “The Color Purple.”
Image: Courtesy of Capital Entertainment / Edits by CT
Sandra Crouch sings at New Christ Memorial Church, San Fernando, California, circa 2005.
On her own, she worked as a percussionist, playing on such recordings as “Cracklin’ Rosie” by Neil Diamond and “Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin.
Music industry figures recalled how Sandra Crouch coordinated choirs for Grammy production numbers akin to Michael Jackson’s performances of “The Way You Make Me Feel” and “The Man within the Mirror” on the 1988 telecast.
R&B singer Candi Staton remembered behind-the-scenes moments with Crouch, including spending time together in 1984, after they were nominees in the identical Grammy gospel category.
“There was no competition,” Staton said in a press release to RNS. “Just friends hanging out. I believe that’s the truly real thing about Sandra is that she was all concerning the ministry and never the awards.”
