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1986 Inductees

Urias LeFevre

By January 1, 2018May 5th, 20212 Comments

Inducted 1986

URIAS LeFEVRE

(1910 – 1979)

URIAS LeFEVRE was a founding member and patriarch of the legendary, mid-twentieth century, Southern Gospel group, The LeFevres.

Urias and Eva Mae LeFevre circa 1958

Urias LeFevre was a guitar playing, lead singer, who with younger brother Alphus and older sister Maude became the original LeFevre Trio. As youngsters the LeFevre Trio performed in public as early as the 1920s. As the group’s personnel changed through the years their name changed to The LeFevres and the family group would go on to influence southern gospel music for decades. 

The LeFevre children were brought up in a family influenced by music stretching back through several generations. Urias and Alphus were taught to play instruments as youngsters and when they started singing publically in 1921 they were proficient musicians. The LeFevre family lived in Smithville, Tennessee and before long word spread about the talented two boys. People especially enjoyed their instrumental music but once the brothers added their voices and brought Maude’s singing into the mix the beautifully blended trio’s local popularity grew even more. It was about this time that the trio decided to focus on performing exclusively gospel music.

While Urias was in college in the late 1920s, his singing career took a more organized direction. Once younger brother Alphus joined him at the Bible Training School of the Church of God in Sevierville, Tennessee (now Lee University), the harmonizing brothers became the anchoring members of the Bible Training School Quartet Number Two, a group who often traveled the region as ambassadors representing the college. “The Bible Training School quartet was very smooth,” Alphus said many years later. “We had teamwork down to perfection, and we could sing acapella or do counterpoint.”

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