SMITH, WILLIE MAE FORD. Gospel singer ( in Rolling Fort, Mississippi). Her family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, when she was a child, then settled in St. Louis, Missouri, when she was twelve years old. The father formed a family quartet, which attracted wide attention when the singers performed in 1922 at the National Baptist Convention . After the family group was disbanded, Willie Mae decided to enter a music career and planned to study further. She changed to the field of gospel...