Della Reese

     Della Reese began singing in church in her hometown of Detroit when she was 6 years old.   As a teen-ager, she toured with the gospel great Mahalia Jackson; at age 18, she formed the Meditation Singers, becoming the first performer to take gospel music to the casinos of Las Vegas.

     Reese expanded her musical repertoire as a vocalist with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra and began making her own records.   “Don’t You Know” and “And That Reminds Me” were two of her biggest hits in the 1950s.   She appeared on television as a guest on many variety shows, logging more than 20 appearances in one year on the most popular of these, “The Ed Sullivan Show.”   In 1987, She was nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Female Soloist in Gospel Music.

     She once hosted a television talk show (1969-70) and has appeared in numerous television series, including “Sanford and Son,” “The A-Team,” “Crazy Like a Fox,” and “Picket Fences.”   She also starred as a series regular in “Charlie & Company” and in “The Royal Family,” both on the Fox Network.

     An ordained minister with an active congregation in Los Angeles, Reese’s real-life perspective parallels that of the character she portrays. “The human beings we touch have to churn their own butter,” she explains. “Tess, Monica (Roma Downey), and Andrew (John Dye) don’t come to fix people in trouble. They come to teach them how to fix themselves. They provide assistance for people at a crossroads. If people see the hope—see that life is not all about oppression, depression, and suppression, and have their eyes opened—they can become their own miracle.”

     Reese recently completed a 25-city tour of her revue, “Some of My Best Friends are the Blues.”   She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, producer Franklin Thomas Lett.   Her birth date is July 6.