Virgil Oliver Stamps

Born: Sep­tem­ber 18, 1892, Up­shur Coun­ty, Tex­as. Died: Au­gust 19, 1940, Bay­lor Hos­pi­tal, Dallas, Tex­as. At­tend­ed the Up­shur Coun­ty Sing­ing Con­ven­tion and fell in love with quar­tet sing­ing. In 1907, he attend­ed a sing­ing school run by R. M. Mor­gan. From 1911 to 14 he taught sing­ing schools while con­tin­u­ing to work at the fa­mi­ly store in Ore Ci­ty, Tex­as. In 1914, he com­posed his first song, "Man Be­hind the Plow," and sold it for ten cents a co­py. En­cour­aged by his suc­cess, he went to work for a mu­sic com­pa­ny that year, and con­tin­ued his mu­sic­al stu­dies. In 1924, he found­ed the V. O. Stamps Mu­sic Com­pa­ny. In 1926, Jes­se Bax­ter be­came as­so­ci­at­ed with the Stamps con­cern. In 1927, the com­pa­ny changed its name to the Stamps-Bax­ter Mu­sic Com­pa­ny. With­in two years, the firm moved its head­quar­ters to Dall­as, Tex­as, and op­ened an office in Chat­ta­noo­ga, Ten­nes­see. For the first few years, Stamps-Bax­ter had its books print­ed in Dal­ton, Geor­gia, but in 1934 de­cid­ed to be­gin print­ing them it­self. By 1936, the com­pa­ny moved to larg­er quar­ters, and was known as the Stamps-Bax­ter Mu­sic and Print­ing Com­pa­ny. At the time, it was said to be larg­est print­ing con­cern in the world de­vot­ed to Gos­pel mu­sic. Stamps was al­so known as the found­er of the Stamps Quar­tet, a Gos­pel sing­ing group, which in 1936 be­gan broad­cast­ing in Dal­las, Texas, on ra­dio sta­tion KRLD. In 1938 and 1939, the quar­tet ran all-night sing­ing con­ven­tions in lo­ca­tions such as the Cot­ton Bowl of the State Fair Park, and the Dal­las Spor­ta­tor­i­um. The 1939 ev­ent ran from 8:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., and was broad­cast for near­ly eight straight hours. At the time of his death, Stamps was su­per­vis­ing ov­er a do­zen quar­tets sing­ing on var­i­ous ra­dio sta­tions, was ed­it­ing the month­ly Gos­pel Mu­sic News, and was pre­si­dent of the Texas State Sing­ers As­so­ci­a­tion. Stamps was a mem­ber of the Tex­as Music Hall of Fame.