HR101 Summary

• Celebrates the life of Evelyn Starks Hardy, founder of the Original Gospel Harmonettes, who passed away at age 92.

• Mrs. Hardy was born in Birmingham on December 15, 1922, learned piano at age seven, and in 1940 received an invitation to play piano for the National Baptist Convention Choir.

• She graduated from Miles College and earned a Master's Degree in guidance and counseling from The University of Alabama, and helped the Original Gospel Harmonettes become one of the pioneering African-American female gospel groups to sign with a major record label.

• Mrs. Hardy served as the Original Gospel Harmonettes' original pianist, composer, and arranger, led the men's choir at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, and co-wrote an autobiography titled "The Sweetest Harmony: Evelyn Starks Hardy and the Original Gospel Harmonettes."

• The House of Representatives expresses gratitude for her abundant life and offers this resolution in tribute to her inspiring legacy and in sympathy to her family and the many individuals she touched.