RIP - Dottie Rambo

Joyce "Dottie" Rambo

b. May 02, 1934

d. May 11, 2008

The fundamentalist gospel singer, Dottie Rambo, died while on the way to do a Mother's Day show. The bus she was in skidded off the road, smashed into a guardrail, and then crashed into an embankment. Of the eight people in the bus, all of whom sustained injuries, Dottie was the only one killed. Ouch.

Along with her husband, Buck, and eventually their daughter, Reba, the family for decades was a mainstay among gospel singing groups. Their heyday was probably 1968-1981. They performed under various names, including "The Singing Rambos", "The Rambos", and "The Swinging Rambos".

Buck must've taken that latter name just a bit too literally; because, to quote Wikipedia, "In April of 1994, Dottie and Buck divorced. Within a short time, Buck married Rambo's secretary." Ouch again. The flesh was willing, and the spirit was weak.

For fundies, finding "acceptable" music LP's for your kids to listen to was always quite the challenge. Rock & Roll was a no-no, cuz it promoted sex and drugs. Country & Western was a no-no cuz it promoted sex and booze. Show Tunes like Mary Poppins were a no-no cuz they promoted Black Umbrella Sorcery. And Handel's Messiah just sounds crappy when played by the little old lady on the church's out-of-tune piano. So, along with the Happy Goodmans and the Bill Gaither Trio, the Rambos became a big fish in a very small evangelicalistic-music pond.

If you haven't heard of the Rambos, you aren't alone. RateYour Music, normally encyclopedic when it comes to albums, barely has anything listed by them. Via Liz however, we have five Rambos LP's in our vinyl collection.

It is not common knowledge, but Buck and Dottie also had a reprobate son, John James. He had a body distorted by excessive steroid use, was an ex-green beret and had anger-management issues. He went postal a number of times, first wiping out a town called Hope, Washington (along with most of the Washington National Guard). Subsequently, he massacred half the evil commies in Vietnam (leaving the other half for Chuck Norris); then obliterated the combined Russian and Afghani forces around Kabul; and finished up by killing all the pirates in Southeast Asia, along with most of the Burmese army.

But I digress. Rest in peace, Dottie Rambo. Yours was not an easy life. Hopefully, you've found comfort now.