The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Bill Carpenter, a spokesman for the Hawkins family.
Mr. Hawkins and his brother Edwin were self-taught keyboard players from Oakland, Calif., who were helping to organize summer events for the Church of God in Christ when they recorded their first record. It was meant to be sold locally to raise money for the church, but after one of its songs,“Oh Happy Day,” a hymnlike incantation with a funky underbeat, became a crossover hit, the brothers began their musical careers.
As he did in “Oh Happy Day” (credited to the Edwin Hawkins Singers), Edwin became known for mixing secular sounds with church traditions; Walter’s music was something else. His best-known songs — “Changed,”“Goin’ Up Yonder,” “Marvelous” and “Thank You Lord,”among others — were characterized by the supplicating tones of a preacher in full thrall to his faith.
“Walter’s music was undoubtedly church music,” Mr. Carpenter said. “It wasn’t likely to be on the pop charts. It had rock ’n’ roll in it, but it was very church.”
Mr. Hawkins founded his own church in Oakland, theLove Center Church, which he served as pastor, and with it he founded a choir, the Love Center Choir.
With the choir, with his brother and other siblings, and with his former wife, Tramaine, he recorded more than a dozen albums, including five albums collectively known as the “Love Alive” series. According to allmusic.com, a music Web site, “Love Alive III” sold more than a million copies and “Love Alive IV” was No. 1 on the gospel charts for 39 weeks. He won a Grammy for his participation, with several other top gospel performers, on the 1980 album “The Lord’s Prayer.”
Walter Lee Hawkins was born in Oakland on May 18, 1949; his father worked as a porter and a longshoreman. He dropped out of high school — he later earned a G.E.D. — and with his brother Edwin played at church events. He was often given more credit than he felt he deserved for “Oh Happy Day”; he sang on the recording, but was otherwise not responsible for it, and after it made its splash, he headed off on his own path. He attended classes in divinity at the University of California, Berkeley, and founded his church in 1972.
In addition to Edwin, who lives in Ripon, Mr. Hawkins is survived by three sisters, Carol, Feddie and Lynette, all also of Ripon; a brother, Daniel, of Oakland; a son, Walter Jamie Hawkins, of Tracy, Calif.; a daughter, Trystan Hawkins, of Vallejo, Calif., and two grandchildren. Mr. Hawkins’s marriage to the former Tramaine Davis ended in divorce, but they remained close and often performed together.
Mr. Hawkins recorded his first album, “Do Your Best,” which was produced by Tom Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival, in 1972. Though largely unknown today, it had influence in the gospel world.
“I carried that album around with me in my arms for days,” said Pastor Hezekiah Walker, a two-time Grammy-winning gospel singer and radio host who founded a church, theLove Fellowship Tabernacle, that was modeled after Mr. Hawkins’s. “It was the first gospel record where I said to myself, ‘I can do this, I can get with this.’ Churchgoing people who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, Walter Hawkins was who we looked to for music we enjoyed.”
I love this song....and this testimony. I have never been addicted to drugs as she was....or alcohol. Nor, have I been promiscuous, but this lady spoke to my heart. This is my song....and a wonderful testimony.