Jim Bailey column: 'Just an athlete who could sing'

OK, all you gospel quartet fans out there, who do you think I consider the best first tenor who ever sang? Denver Crumpler? Rosie Rozell? Nope. Ernie Haase? Close, but no. Larnelle Harris? David Phelps? Guess again.

It’s Ron Patty. Perhaps better known as Sandi Patty’s father, he could hit the high notes with the best of them as he joined Doug Oldham, Paul Clausen and Ernie Gross as the Christian Brothers Quartet with Carolyn on the radio, during summer tours and on a stint with Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians in which he sang for (and met) Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. Ron, 91, died Nov.



14, rejoining his wife Carolyn in heaven just over a year after she preceded him. Though he loved gospel music, he rarely spent full time on the road. He pastored congregations in Oklahoma, Arizona and California, though managing to go on the road with the Christian Brothers, a choir from his church he called the Ron Patty Singers, with Carolyn and their three children as the Ron Patty Family and finally with Carolyn as a husband-wife duo.

For all his accolades, he demurred in an interview with me early in Sandi’s solo career: “I’m just an athlete who can sing.” The Sapulpa, Okla., native picked up the nickname “Tyke” during his youth, and it stuck with him for many years.

It presumably reflected his blond hair and boyish look. The University of Oklahoma tried to recruit him to play football. Instead, with an eye to Christian ministry, he opted for Anderson College in 1951, where he starred in football and baseball.

Joining the choir at East Side Church of God, he met and married the pastor’s daughter, piano virtuoso Carolyn Tunnell. They would go on to form a lifelong team. Ron had a four-octave voice range, slipping seamlessly into head voice as he soared to the high notes.

The Christian Brothers would launch into their signature song, “Old-Time Religion,” as he reared back on his heels and lifted his head as he sang: “My-y-y-y mother had the old-time religion...

” Later in his career, with the aid of a studio multi-track, he and Carolyn would perform a full choral version of “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel,” with over a dozen voice tracks filling out parts from the bass lines all the way up to the high notes. And he did continue to use his athletic ability, chiefly as an outstanding pitcher in fast-pitch softball, traveling with an organization that attempted to reach youngsters through sports participation. For many years, attendees of the Church of God convention in Anderson eagerly looked forward to nights when Ron would be leading the music.

His enthusiastic directing was geared to getting the most from congregational singing. He was the last of the original Christian Brothers to reach the end of life on Earth. Clausen was the first to go after a bout with Huntington’s disease, replaced by Paul Hart and later Dean Schield.

Now they’re reunited in the heavenly choir..