UPPER MARLBORO, Maryland (RNS) — Thousands of fans of gospel music giant Richard Smallwood bid him farewell in a music-filled funeral on Saturday (Jan. 24), as family and friends of the composer remembered him for his creativity, his theology and his humility.
Smallwood’s black closed casket, covered with white flowers, stood at the front of the sanctuary of First Baptist Church of Glenarden, just east of Washington, at the 2 1/2-hour service dominated by the songs he wrote.
Pastor Maurice Watson, the former pastor of Smallwood’s Washington-area home congregation, preached on the Bible’s Psalm 121, on which Smallwood based one of his most widely sung works, “Total Praise,” which begins with the words “Lord I will lift mine eyes to the hills, knowing my help is coming from You.”
“His music had a depth to it that spoke to our souls and to our hearts,” said Watson, who led Metropolitan Baptist Church, where Smallwood was a member and was ordained himself. “His music was high enough to make the erudite sit up and listen, but it was low enough to inspire and give hope to the common person.”
Smallwood, an eight-time Grammy Award nominee, died Dec. 30, 2025, at age 77 of complications from kidney failure, in Sandy Spring, Maryland. Born in Atlanta, he was raised mostly in Washington, where he was influenced by his stepfather, the Rev. Chester Lee “CL” Smallwood, who pastored the district’s Union Temple Church, and his mother, Mabel, who took him to performances of the National Symphony Orchestra.
FILE – Richard Smallwood. (Courtesy photo)
Twenty-five minutes before the doors to the church opened at 9:30 a.m., dozens of people huddled outside as others sat in idling cars in 10-degree weather. By the time the funeral began at noon, the predominantly Black audience, dressed in boots and puffy jackets, furs and high heels, scarves and sneakers, filled most of the seats of the church’s main auditorium.
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In a recorded video presentation that preceded the service, Smallwood described how “Total Praise” has been sung around the globe, his words illustrated by clips of the tune being played by Stevie Wonder on the harmonica, by the Florida A&M University marching band and by choirs from Italy to Ghana to Japan.
Pastor Maurice Watson speaks during the funeral of Richard Smallwood, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, at First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. (RNS photo/Adelle M. Banks)
“Total Praise,” which Smallwood introduced with his group Vision in 1996, was covered by Destiny’s Child, performed by a cantor at Carnegie Hall in New York, and was sung by a choir as President Barack Obama welcomed Pope Francis to the White House in 2015.
Near the end of the funeral, the song was featured twice more, first in an instrumental version played by pianist Joseph Joubert and then sung by Vision and the Celebration Choir, a collection of singers from different phases of Smallwood’s life, Metropolitan, Union Temple and Howard University’s gospel choir.
Reflecting Smallwood’s longtime interest in classical music, the prelude and postlude to the service were played by a string ensemble, including works by Johann Sebastian Bach, who Smallwood called his “favorite classical composer on the planet.”
The gospel musician Stephen Hurd, who is also ordained, expressed his gratitude for Smallwood’s knowledge of Scripture, but also music theory. “Even as we want to mourn and we want to cry, oh God, we are rejoicing because had it not been for a Smallwood song, some of us would not have learned our circle of fifths,” Hurd said in offering the “prayer of comfort.” “Had it not been for a Smallwood song, some of us wouldn’t learn how to play in different keys. Had it not been for a Smallwood song, some of us would not know how to articulate Scripture in melody.”
Vision with Charisse Nelson performs during the funeral of Richard Smallwood, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, at First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. (RNS photo/Adelle M. Banks)
Others recalled that Smallwood both inspired and helped found choirs at his stepfather’s church and at Howard University. After he became a well-known recording artist, Smallwood often returned as a “humble servant” to Metropolitan Baptist, still dedicated to perfection.
“He believed that the choir loft was holy ground and that preparation itself was an act of reverence. Through him, we learned that excellence is not elitism,” said the Rev. H. Beecher Hicks Jr., a former longtime leader at the church, who attended the service but spoke via recorded video.
With his early gospel group, the Richard Smallwood Singers, and with Vision, Smallwood recorded such hits as “Anthem of Praise,” “I’ll Trust You” and “Center of My Joy,” the latter co-written with Bill and Gloria Gaither. “I Love the Lord,” originally recorded in 1976 with a Union Temple choir, was rerecorded by the singers in 1982, with Dottie Jones as the lead singer. At the funeral, Jones sang the song, which later was remade for the soundtrack of the 1996 movie “The Preacher’s Wife,” in a version sung by Whitney Houston and the Georgia Mass Choir.
Also on Saturday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore recalled reciting lyrics of “I Love the Lord” on the day he won his office three years ago. “Election morning, he was our soundtrack: ‘He heard my cry,’ was how we started that morning,” said Moore, and went on to sing a brief part of Smallwood’s “Center of My Joy.”
“He was a true vessel of God’s love at a time when we needed it, he was always there to provide the lift that we needed and, Lord have mercy, in the world right now, we need his voice,” Moore said.
Dottie Jones, center, performs during the funeral of Richard Smallwood, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, at First Baptist Church of Glenarden in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. (RNS photo/Adelle M. Banks)
Moore also read an official proclamation honoring Smallwood. His tribute followed others previously acknowledged in the service by dignitaries including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, who met with the Smallwood family prior to the service.
A representative of the Recording Academy, home of the Grammys, recognized Smallwood’s contributions within and beyond the world of gospel music. “His songs became Scripture and sound, hymns for moments of celebration and for seasons of struggle alike,” said Chelsey Green, chair of the academy’s board of trustees. “He possessed a rare gift, the ability to unite classical mastery with spiritual depth. Every note carried intention. Every lyric carried purpose.”
Actress Phylicia Rashad, who attended Howard with Smallwood, recalled her schoolmate introducing the gospel choir he co-founded. At a time when Mozart and other Eurocentric music was the norm, “matrons of Washington, D.C., society showed up in support appropriately dressed, covered in their finest minks. It was grand,” Rashad said. “We weren’t a quarter through the presentation when the minks came off, the hands were raised, the ladies were up on their feet, running up and down the aisles.
“Oh, yes, we’d never seen anything like this. He had brought us together. He had brought the university community and the greater community together in praise,” she recalled.
Similar exuberance — hands clapping and waving, people rocking to the music, and the accent of a tambourine — filled the megachurch on Saturday, especially after Vision sang “Highest Praise” and “Thank You.” Pastor George Lewis Parks of Metropolitan, the funeral’s officiant, encouraged it, noting that it might be the only opportunity to let loose as a bitter winter storm was brewing. “If you got one praise in you, you just ought to let it out,” he said. “Most of us are not going to make it to church, so you might as well get it in right now.”
Pianist Joseph Joubert, left, plays an instrumental version of “Total Praise” at the funeral of Richard Smallwood, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, at First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. (RNS photo/Adelle M. Banks)
Not all the speakers were musically related to Smallwood. Two foster sisters thanked him for welcoming them, his godson called him “the King David of our time, ultimate worship leader,” and a nephew requested continued prayers for Smallwood’s family.
The colorful 10-page funeral program was filled with photos of Smallwood with friends and celebrities — Rashad, Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick among them. It listed his 30-album discography, including “Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration,” a 1992 album on which he sang with an all-star choir conducted by musician Quincy Jones.
In mid-January on Capitol Hill, Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, joined members of the Howard and Metropolitan Baptist choirs in singing “Total Praise,” and announced that he and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina introduced a congressional resolution in Smallwood’s honor. The statement, which said Smallwood “left a lasting legacy in the music industry, rooted in faith and triumph,” was approved by the Senate on Jan. 15.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, center, joins the choirs of Metropolitan Baptist Church and Howard University for a Capitol Hill tribute to Richard Smallwood, on Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (Video screen grab)
But the greatest tribute to Smallwood may be that in the weeks after his death, he and his songs have been remembered at worship services in churches across the country, where his music will doubtless live on.
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