Leroy abernathy biography

Not to be confused with LeRoy Abernethy.

Roy Abernethy (September 29, 1906 – February 28, 1977) was an American automobile industry executive, and CEO of American Motors Corporation (AMC) from February 1962 to January 1967. Before AMC, Abernethy had been with Packard Motors and Willys-Overland. Abernethy replaced George W. Romney, who resigned from AMC to become Governor of Michigan.

Background

Roy Abernethy was a native of Monterey, Pennsylvania, and his first job was caring for coal‐mine mules. He moved to Pittsburgh to become an apprenticemechanic and he also took night courses in engineering at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He began his automotive industry career in 1926 as an apprentice mechanic at luxury automaker, Packard, earning 18 cents per hour. He then moved up establishing success in auto sales, reaching US$1,000,000 in Packard vehicles in a single year from his dealership in Hartford, Connecticut. Abernethy also held the post of vice president of sales at Willys.

Changing AMC

American Motors was formed from the merger of Nash Motors and Hudson Motor Car Company, and the company hired Abernethy in 1954. During AMC's formative years, the company struggled with costs and sales. Abernethy became vice president of sales and concentrated on building AMC's sales and distribution network. He recognized that promotion and advertising are useless without a strong dealer organization, so his first task was to convert every Hudson and Nash dealer into an AMC dealer. He then kept many of these dealers allied with AMC, thus helping to keep the corporation afloat, until AMC found its compact car niche under Romney's leadership. He was known to fly 50,000 miles (80,000 km) a year to make AMC synonymous with the compact car. Abernethy achieved sales successes for the company and by 1962, Rambler was number three in sales r

One of the most colorful personalities in southern gospel music history, Georgia native Lee Roy Abernathy was a songwriter, pianist, entertainer, publisher, author, teacher, and political candidate. Always innovative, Abernathy invented a music typesetting system, pioneered the use of public address systems in gospel concerts, and wrote the first singing commercials.

Abernathy was born on August 13, 1913, near the small textile mill village of Atco in Bartow County, to Clara and Dee Abernathy. His musically gifted parents instilled a love for quartet music and the tradition of gospel singing conventions in their children. At the age of five, he was performing regularly with the Atco Quartet, for which his father sang bass. Awing audiences with his ability to harmonize, he sang while standing on a Coca-Cola crate. During the 1920s the family relocated numerous times before settling in Canton, where Abernathy’s father, a former sharecropper, found employment in the textile industry, at the Canton Cotton Mill.

By age fourteen, Abernathy had become so adept at playing the piano that he replaced his older sister when she left the Atco Quartet to marry. Studying shape notes under such important gospel music figures as J. M. Henson, he was eager to learn and gain experience, even enrolling in the Atlanta Conservatory of Music.

In the early 1930s he married Louise Ammons, and they had three children, Hugh, Linda, and Susan.

The Great Depression did not hamper Abernathy’s musical pursuits. He founded the Modern Mountaineers, a country band that performed live on Atlanta’s WSB radio and recorded for Bluebird Records. In 1936 he wrote “Good Times Are Coming Soon,” a reelection campaign song for U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In the early 1940s Abernathy made a noticeable impact on gospel music. Although he was ridiculed by publishers of gospel singing convention books, he offered the first gospel sheet music in

American gospel musician

Musical artist

Lee Roy Abernathy (1913–1993) was a Southern gospel musician, songwriter, and performer.

Biography

Abernathy was born on August 13, 1913, in the Atco community of Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia.

He married Louise Ammons, and they had three children, Hugh, Linda, and Susan.

Music

Abernathy's first musical experience came with his father’s group, the Atco Quartet, at the age of five. His parents instilled a love for quartet music and the tradition of gospel singing conventions, where he learned to read shape notes. He was able to sing harmony with the quartet while standing on a Coca-Cola crate. He studied music under James D. Vaughan, J. M. Henson, and Adger M. Pace.

In the 1930s, he founded the Modern Mountaineers, performing live on Atlanta's WSB (AM). In 1936, he wrote "Good Times Are Coming Soon," a reelection campaign song for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He wrote many gospel songs, including "He’s A Personal Savior", "A Newborn Feeling", and "I Thank My Savior for It All", but his signature song was "A Wonderful Time Up There". Some pastors objected to its jazz beat, which influenced the early career of Elvis Presley. Abernathy disregarded the criticism, believing that he had written the song as a result of divine inspiration. The song was later called the "Gospel Boogie" and was recorded by numerous quartets, as well as Johnny Cash, Johnny Mathis, and Pat Boone. Boone's recording of the song reached number four on the Billboard charts in 1958.

Abernathy wrote "Burning of the Winecoff Hotel" following the tragic Winecoff Hotel fire in Atlanta in 1946. He was a frequent guest of the hotel and would have been at

Lee Roy Abernathy (August 13, 1913 - May 25, 1993)

Sometimes credited as Leroy Abernathy

Biography

Lee Roy Abernathy was born in Cartersville, Georgia. His sharecropping parents, Dee and Clara Belle Abernathy, relocated frequently during his formative years. His first experience as a singer came at the age of five when he sang with his father�s group, the Atco Quartet. By the time Abernathy was 14, he had learned to play piano. Abernathy only completed seven grades in traditional school, but he had more than 30 private music instructors. One school where he studied was the Conservatory of Music in Atlanta, GA. He studied with shape note instructors including James D Vaughan and Adger M Pace.

Abernathy wrote many popular gospel songs. Some of these include He�s A Personal Savior and A Newborn Feeling. Along with Dwight Brock of the Stamps, Abernathy helped to popularize the use of �turnaround� segments between song verses which served to highlight the talents of the musician(s). He was an early pioneer printing sheet music (single songs) and boasted of thousands of piano students taught with his Modern Gospel Piano Course by Mail. He also served as a vocal coach to numerous singers including bass singer London Parris who went on to have great success in the industry.

Abernathy wrote a book in 1948 simply titled IT. The book is a collection of Abernathy's songs and his commentaries about quartet life. It was designed to be a handbook for gospel musicians and is a highly sought collector's item today.

Abernathy was also well known as a performer. He pulled stints with the Rangers Quartet, Jubilee Quartet, and the Homeland Harmony Quartet. Abernathy and Carroll �Shorty� Bradford also performed together as the Happy Two, billed as a �two-man quartet.� The Happy Two were an unusual group. Their program focused on corny humor and drew from songs that had interesting, intertwining parts. When they sang, they sounded almost like a quartet. Both singers had e