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Homecoming Sweetheart Lillie Knauls

Miss Lillie Knauls

I am asking God to use me this year, any way He wants to use me. I am a yielded vessel and am listening to His voice to give me new songs, new sermons and new places to minister.  I am excited and looking for great things in 2014.” (1)

In our ongoing effort to pay tribute to long time Gospel singers, allow me to introduce Ms. Lillie Knauls. This beautiful, never married, woman of God has been singing and preaching Jesus for over 35 years.  Miss Lillie (as she likes to be addressed) is a regular on the Gaither videos. If you are a viewer of the Gaither videos, Ms. Lillie is not hard to spot.  Her beautiful smile seems to illuminate those around her.  Ms. Lillie is also known for the many hats she wears. She is respectfully known as the hat lady.  The reason for these hats is not just for style as Ms. Lillie explains, “I grew up in the church and as a little girl I played the piano and tambourine and sang in the choir. The first Sunday of the month was Communion Day. All the women wore hats to the services.”

Being respectfully recognized as the hat lady has opened many doors for Ms. Lillie.  She has had countless opportunities to speak and sing at ladies breakfast and luncheon meetings. There is much more to Ms. Lillie Knauls than her hat ministry, which can be traced back to the ‘60’s, where she was a soloist for her home church in San Jose, California.

In 1969, she became part of the Edwin Hawkins Singers and traveled the world. The Edwin Hawkins Singers are perhaps best known for their arrangement of “Oh Happy Day.” “That was a great time in my life, being able to sing with that fabulous choir.  It opened so many doors for me, but since I had a full time job working at a telephone company, I did not have the time to work all the bookings that came my way, so in August of 1978, I resigned and a whole new world opened up to me!”

One of the first assignments from God to Ms. Lillie was to travel to Hawaii to work with a beach ministry that conducted a Sunday church service for the tourists.  Ms. Lillie says, “We ministered at the most beautiful church in the world!”  Hawaii has become Ms. Lillie’s most favorite place.

I had the good fortune to speak with Ms. Lillie on the phone, from her California home. During our conversation, I learned that Ms. Lillie has been a part of the Gaither videos for over 20 years! I asked her if she had any favorite moments from the videos and she replied, “Quite honestly, every moment I’m there is a favorite moment.  Just being with all those legends and singing the songs I grew up with that still move me.  I am so grateful for Bill and Gloria Gaither for blessing the world, with these videos.” Read more »