Elder Goldwire McClendon had spent some 70 years ministering as a singer and preacher when he came to the public's attention as a contestant on the third season of BET's Sunday Best television show, and while he finished as a first runner-up on the show, he earned, at the age of 81, a recording contract with Matthew Knowles' Music World Gospel label. McClendon was born in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of a pianist and a singer. He was singing in church by the time he was nine, and formed and sang in the gospel quartet the Cosmopolitan Gospel Singers at the age of 16, leaving ...