The Klaudt Indian Memorial Foundation will present a free gospel concert at Lee University on Thursday, March 18 at 7 p.m.
The Klaudt Indian Memorial Foundation will present a free gospel concert at Lee University on Thursday, March 18 at 7 p.m.
The concert will feature performances by reunited gospel groups of the past, as well as current Christian performers.
Featured artists will be The Klaudt Brothers, Jody Brown Indian Family, Sunshine Boys, Sunday Edition, King’s Men Four, Homeland Harmony Quartet, Bob Crews, Voices of Lee, and the Lee University Brass Ensemble.
The Klaudt Foundation will be introducing their first scholarship at the concert. This scholarship will go to a promising Native American student at Lee University. “We want to give back to Lee University, because it has meant so much to our family,” said Kenneth Klaudt, “but mostly, we want to honor our heritage and the legacy our parents left in gospel music.”
The Klaudt Indian Family is most notable for its frequent appearances on several syndicated television programs in the 1960’s, including The Gospel Singing Jubilee, which aired on Sunday mornings nation-wide.
The Klaudt ministry began with R.H. and Lillian Klaudt on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota in the late 1920’s. As the family grew, the Klaudts began to travel as evangelists and musicians with their children Vernon, Ramona, Melvin, Raymond, and Kenneth. They traveled nationally for well over 50 years, known as the Klaudt Indian Family musicians, retiring their ministry in the early 80’s.
At the start of his ministry, R.H. Klaudt was ordained by Church of God minister F.J. Lee, for whom Lee College, now Lee University, was named. Lillian attended the school in Sevierville, Tennessee, when it was named Church of God Bible Training School. In the 1950’s and 60’s, the entire family attended Lee to further their education.
The Klaudt family has a fascinating historical heritage as well. Lillian Klaudt was the daughter of Clarence and Willena Little Soldier. Little Soldier and his brother One Feather had served as scouts for Custer in the Battle of Little Big Horn.
The Klaudt family matriarch, Lillian Little Soldier, came from Like A Fish Hook, which is a village in the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. This is the same village that raised Sacajawea, a Shoshone girl who would later travel to the Pacific Ocean and back, with her husband, her child, and expeditioners Lewis and Clark. The bicentennial of the expedition begins this spring.
The concert on March 18 will be held in the Conn Center on the Lee University campus. Admission is free, and visitors are welcome. The Foundation will have a reserved section for those that help in the support of this event.
For more information on this concert, please call (423) 614-8320.
The Foundation's vision is to honor R.H. and Lillian Klaudt with a perpetual vehicle to train more gospel singers and musicians and ministers to carry the gospel message through song and word. It is a non-profit foundation.