Soul and Gospel singer, MARY LOVE COMER has died aged 69.
Born MARY ANN VARNEY in Sacramento in 1943, her music career started when she became a session singer in the studios of Los Angeles. Her first success came via her work with SAM COOKE’S manager J. W. ALEXANDER. Using the name MARY LOVE she scored with ‘You Turned My Bitter Into Sweet’ on Modern records in 1965. Subsequent Modern singles and releases on Roulette failed to register but many of her records did become favourites on the Northern soul scene.
Then, in the 80s, and using her married name – MARY LOVE COMER (her husband was the Gospel entrepreneur /preacher BRAD COMER) – she was again successful with what became a gospel classic – ‘Come Out Of The Sandbox’.
Her main concern though was running her and her husband’s church in Tennessee; in recent years, therefore she only recorded sporadically.
MARY died on Friday 21st June.
