Les Beasley, longtime co-owner/singer/manager for The Florida Boys and beloved member of the Christian music community, passed away Saturday, November 17, 2018. An innovator in the genre, Les was a lifetime member of the Board Of Directors of the Gospel Music Association and served as the GMA president in 1970 and 1971. He established the name of the annual Dove Awards program, and it was his idea to design the statue in the shape of a descending dove.
From 1964 to 1982, Beasley produced the nationally syndicated television show, The Gospel Singing Jubilee. With millions of weekly viewers from coast to coast, the wildly popular show established itself as a bona fide part of American culture.
A forward thinker, his contributions to gospel/Christian music are innumerable. He was a singer, a songwriter, a musician, a publisher, a group owner/manager and, most of all, he was a Christian who championed the expansion of gospel/Christian music in order to carry the message of Christ to the multitudes. He will be greatly missed, but his legacy lives on through the many lives he touched.
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