MERRILL WOMACH (February 7, 1927 – December 28, 2014) was the
Spokane-born son of a salesman who began singing publicly at age six. As
a high schooler he hosted his own radio show, and also sang with local
quartet and a choir. While attending Seattle's Northwest Ministerial
College, Womach directed a daily radio program for three years, and also
served as assistant pastor and music director at Spokane's Fourth
Presbyterian Church. He also sang as a soloist with a civic choir, and
then spent a year in Los Angeles making concert, radio and television
appearances.
After entering the mortuary field to work as an undertaker,
in 1958 Merrill also founded a business, the National Music Service, which
provided recordings of his own spirituals (5,000 songs, eventually) along with
one of two primitive playback systems which he leased out to funeral
parlors.
That regional business eventually grew into a much larger entity
(the Global Distribution Network, Inc.) which serviced 5,000 clients. In
1960 he formed Melodies Divine records in Spokane and released his debut
LP,
My Song, which featured as many as 42 of his overdubbed
vocal lines that created a chorus effect.
Meanwhile, as an aviator,
Womach was involved in a plane crash in Beaver Marsh, Oregon, on
November 23, 1961. It was an horrific accident which left him disfigured with third degree burns on
his hands and his entire head.
People magazine reported in 2013
that: "On the race to the hospital he startled his fast-driving
benefactors with a song of celebration. 'My doctor says most people
burned as badly as I was die from shock....I didn't, I sang. That kept
me awake. That kept me alive.'"
A lucky survivor, Womach went on to
authorize an autobiography,
Tested by Fire, and a documentary film titled
He Restoreth My Soul
was also made about Womach's accident and subsequent recovery. Merrill
began recording again in 1967, cutting over a dozen LPs, and finally
died in his sleep on December 28, 2014.
Merrill Womach's recordings include these albums:
- 1960 My Song
- 1967 I Believe in Miracles
- 1968 Merrill Womach Sings Christmas Carols
- 1969 A Time For Us
- 1970 Surely Goodness and Mercy
- 1973 I Stood At Calvary
- 1974 Happy Again
- 1976 Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory
- 1977 In Concert
- 1977 In Quartet
- 1977 New Life Collectible
- 1979 Images Of Christmas
- 1979 My Favorite Hymns
- 1980 Reborn
- 1981 Classical
- 1981 I'm A Miracle, Lord
- 1981 Merrill
- 1983 Feelin' Good
- 1985 Thank You, Lord
