1914–1993

Introduction

portrait

Born: Feb­ru­ary 14, 1914, Bell­view, New Mex­ico.

Died: De­cem­ber 30, 1993, Ov­er­land Park, Kan­sas.

Buried: John­son Coun­ty Me­mo­ri­al Gar­dens, John­son Coun­ty, Kan­sas.

portrait

Biography

Ira was the son of An­drew Crit­ten­don Stan­phill and Flo­ra Mag­de­lin­da Eng­ler. He mar­ried twice, to Zel­ma Lor­raine Law­son Cow­an and Glo­ria Hoyt Hol­lo­way.

He was an As­sem­blies of God pas­tor, sing­er, Gospel song writ­er, and gift­ed mu­si­cian. By age 10, he was play­ing pi­ano, or­gan, uku­le­le and ac­cor­di­on.

By age 17, he was com­pos­ing and sing­ing, par­ti­ci­pat­ing in re­vi­val cru­sades, pray­er meet­ings, and tent cam­paigns.

He gra­du­at­ed from the Jun­ior Col­lege in Chill­i­cothe, Mis­sou­ri, and was lat­er award­ed an hon­or­ary PhD from Hyles-An­der­son Col­lege in Crown Point, In­di­ana.

As a sing­ing ev­an­gel­ist, he preached all ov­er Am­er­ica and in ov­er 40 oth­er coun­tries.

He was in­duct­ed in­to the Gos­pel Mu­sic Hall of Fame in 1981, and pub­lished his au­to­bio­gra­phy, This Side of Hea­ven, in 1983.

Sources

Lyrics