While never achieving the national popularity of contemporaries like the Ward Singers or the Caravans, the Meditation Singers were indisputably the premier Detroit-based female gospel group of the 1950s; the first Motor City act to reject a cappella vocal traditions in favor of instrumental backing, their ranks also produced a pair of secular pop stars in Della Reese and Laura Lee. Formed in 1947 as a product of Detroit's New Liberty Baptist Church's renowned Moments of Meditation choir, the Meditation Singers were primarily led by Earnestine Rundless, the wife of one-time Sou...