The Drinkard Singers

The Drinkard Singers
1958 album cover: A Joyful Noise
Background information
Genres	Christian
Years active	1938–1967
Labels	RCA
Past members	Cissy Drinkard Houston Dee Dee Warwick (deceased) Dionne Warwick Nick Drinkard (deceased) Larry Drinkard (deceased) Marie Drinkard-Epps (deceased) Anne Drinkard-Moss (deceased) Judy Clay (deceased)

The Drinkard Singers were an American gospel singing group, most successful in the late 1950s and important in the careers of singers Cissy Houston, Dionne Warwick, Dee Dee Warwick, and Judy Clay.

Nitcholas (aka Nitch, 1895-1951) and Delia Drinkard (née McCaskill, 1901-1941) who had eight children - sons William (1918-2003), Hansom (b. 1924), Nicky (b. 1929-1992), and Larry (1931-2012), and daughters Lee (1921-2005), Marie (1922-2007), Anne (1927-2003) and Emily "Cissy" (b. 1933). The Drinkard surname, although gained through a Native American ancestor, has British origins with a meaning that alludes to the running of water.

Nitcholas Drinkard was born to a part Dutch, part African-American, mother Susan Bell Drinkard (née Fuller, b. 1876) and a full Native American father John Drinkard, Jr. (b. 1870). He descended from a family of African-American landowners in Blakely, Georgia where three of his children where born. The Drinkards owned a substantial amount of farmland during a time when it was unusual for blacks to own large portions of land. The asset was gradually depleted as small portions of the land were sold, over time, to resolve continued legal troubles of a close relative.

The family later moved to New Jersey during the Second Great Migration. In 1938 mother, Delia, suffered a stroke and died of cerebral hemorrhage three years later. Nitcholas later died of stomach cancer in 1951.

The driving inspiration behind the Drinkard Singers was factory worker Nicholas "Nitch" Drinkard, who encouraged his children to form a gospel singing group in Savannah, Georgia, around 1938. The original group comprised Emily Drinkard (later known as Cissy Houston), her sister Anne, and brothers Nick and Larry. Another sister, Lee, served as the group's manager, and, as Lee Drinkard Warrick, became the mother of Dee Dee and Dionne Warwick.