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By ROZELLA HARDIN
Editorial Director
rozella.hardin@elizabethton.com
Johnny Cash is known for saying “Gospel music is so ingrained into my bones. I can’t do a concert without singing a gospel song. It’s what I was raised on.”
Jackie Wiseman knew the feeling. She was raised on gospel music. It was ingrained in her, and for more than 40 years she sang with a quartet – the Sounds of Victory, a southern gospel group, of which she was a founding member. Almost every weekend, the group was singing somewhere. They traveled to Southwest Virginia, Western North Carolina, to Greeneville, and often to Charleston, S.C.
“Jackie loved to sing, and through her singing, she touched countless lives and was a witness everywhere she went,” said her husband, Howell. “She was a very humble person, always giving God the glory for her talent and allowing her to use her music to bless others. Jackie never met a stranger and showed love and compassion to everyone through her music.”
Now that Jackie is gone, the group will be no more.
Howell said aside from her family, which included a daughter, Jennifer Earp and her husband, Scotty, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, Jackie’s greatest loves were singing and attending church.
Jackie was raised in the Poga community, the daughter of Stacy and Lillian Turnmire Hicks. “She took great pride in being a ‘Pogarian’ as she called herself,” said Howell, who grew up in the Long Hollow community, and it became home to him and Jackie. Jackie and Howell, when they were not away singing, attended the Long Hollow Baptist Church.
In addition to singing, Jackie could also play the flat top guitar and the bass guitar. “She began her musical career playing bass for the Pruitt Singers, and they became dear friends. A couple of years later she began her own group,” said Howell
According to her husband, one of Jackie’s favorite songs was “When I Cross That River.” She also wrote a lot of the music she and Sounds of Victory performed.
Jackie loved her family and enjoyed being there for them.She was an excellent cook and housekeeper, and among her most tasty dishes, according to Howell, were macaroni salad and meatloaf.
In addition to cooking and music, Jackie enjoyed gardening. “She enjoyed growing flowers and had both a flower garden outside and house plants,” said Howell
Jackie made friends everywhere she went and endeared herself to people.
“She loved the Lord, and her Bible is highlighted with yellow on almost every page with verses that spoke to her,” said Howell.
So many people came to the funeral home to pay their respects, so much that the line was almost two hours long. “They came from all over. It made me proud to see that Jackie had touched so many people,” said Howell.
To Jackie, gospel music was not a sound, gospel music is a message…it means good news, and as someone else said, “it’s good-news music.”
Friends on the funeral home tribute page wrote more than once: “Jackie is now singing with the angels.”
For sure, her music blessed many people, and she will be remembered by many for her musical testimony.
Jackie Wiseman died on September 22.