[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 121 (Monday, September 25, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1824-E1825]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HONORING THE LIFE OF REV. J. BAZZEL MULL

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 25, 2006

  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, Rev. J. Bazzel Mull, a true Tennessee legend 
and Southern gospel icon, passed away on September 5 at the age of 91.
  Just five days later, he and his beloved wife, Elizabeth, would have 
celebrated their 62nd anniversary.
  No couple could have been more loyal to each other than they were, 
and Rev. Mull's most famous line was ``ain't that right, Mrs. Mull?''
  Rev. Mull served God and the people of East Tennessee throughout his 
life.
  He brought enjoyment to millions through his television programs, his 
radio stations, and his live gospel music shows.
  Through all this, as well as his personal testimony, cheerfully 
overcoming blindness, he led countless numbers to a closer walk with 
Jesus Christ.
  He had a great sense of humor and once told me on his TV program that 
no one should be a mugwump. He said that was ``a fellow with his mug on 
one side of the fence and his wump on the other.''
  This Nation is a better place today because of the life of Rev. J. 
Bazzel Mull.
  I would like to call to the attention of my colleagues and other 
readers of the Record the story by Doug Mason which was published in 
the Knoxville News Sentinel on September 6.

                     [From KnoxNews, Sept. 6, 2006]

                 Southern Gospel Music Icon Dies at 91

                            (By Doug Mason)

       ``Ain't that right, Mizz Mull?''
       The Rev. J. Bazzel Mull, who died Tuesday at age 91, may be 
     the most quoted man in East Tennessee.
       For 60 years, his gravel-truck voice was a staple of 
     regional radio and TV, and his familiar query to his wife and 
     ``Mull Singing Convention'' co-host was a much-mimicked 
     catchphrase to generations of East Tennesseans.
       Elizabeth Mull was best known as ``Mizz Mull'' or ``Lady 
     Mull'' to listeners of the ``Mull Singing Convention'' 
     broadcasts. The couple would have celebrated their 62nd 
     anniversary on Sunday.
       J. Bazzel Mull (the ``J'' stood for Jacob) was born Oct. 4, 
     1914, in Burke County, N.C. He began preaching in 1939 and 
     moved to Knoxville in 1942, where he began a radio program on 
     radio station WROL-AM. Later, he was heard on WNOX-AM.
       The Rev. Mull owned several East Tennessee radio stations 
     during his long career. At the time of his death, he was the 
     owner of gospel radio station WJBZ, Praise 96.3, in 
     Knoxville.
       ``The Mull Singing Convention,'' which moved to television 
     in 1956, is still broadcast at 7 a.m. Sundays on WVLT, 
     Channel 8. The program was seen on WBIR, Channel 10, before 
     moving a few years ago to WVLT.
       ``The Mull Singing Convention'' celebrated its 50th 
     anniversary in August. The Rev. Mull's grandson, Doug 
     Hutchison, said the program is confirmed as the longest-
     running locally produced television show in the United 
     States.
       Elizabeth Mull and daughter Charlotte Mull Hutchison now 
     host the program. The Rev. Mull withdrew from the TV show, 
     and from his Sunday evening preaching service on WJBZ, after 
     suffering a stroke about nine months ago.
       Hutchison said his grandfather's stroke brought on 
     dementia. Several other strokes followed, including one about 
     a week and a half ago that left the Rev. Mull unresponsive. 
     He was moved from the hospital to a nursing home, where he 
     died at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday.
       The Rev. Mull was a businessman who promoted Southern 
     gospel music concerts and published and distributed a series 
     of six ``Mull's Singing Convention'' songbooks. The latest 
     hymnal was published as ``Number 7'' in the series, even 
     though it followed edition No. 5.
       ``He didn't like the number 6,'' said Hutchison, who 
     explained that he doesn't know why (perhaps it was because 
     666 is the biblical Mark of the Beast).
       ``For a blind man to achieve as much as he did, he was 
     bound to have some eccentricities,'' said Hutchison, who 
     manages WJBZ and the other Mull family enterprises.
       The Rev. Mull lost his sight at 11 months old, the result 
     of falling into an open-pit fire.
       ``Through his 20s he could tell daylight from dark,'' 
     Hutchison said. ``But from his early 30s on, he was 
     completely blind.''
       Hutchison said that many people didn't realize his 
     grandfather was blind. In public, he wore oversized glasses 
     with thick lenses--possibly to obscure the fact that he often 
     had his eyelids closed during his TV broadcasts, Hutchison 
     theorized.
       ``He was never one to bring to the forefront his 
     handicap,'' the grandson said. ``I talk to people still today 
     that did not know he was blind.''

[[Page E1825]]

       Elizabeth Mull--who met her future husband at a church 
     revival in Lenoir City--was ``100 percent his eyes,'' 
     Hutchison said.
       ``Everywhere they went, she drove him; she led him 
     everywhere.'' She also read the Bible to the Rev. Mull.
       As a young man, it was sometimes Hutchison's job to guide 
     his grandfather to the microphone to emcee the gospel 
     concerts he promoted.
       During the 1970s and early '80s, the Rev. Mull presented 60 
     to 75 concerts a year throughout the Southeast, Hutchison 
     said.
       More recently, ``Mull Singing Convention'' concerts have 
     been limited to two per year at Governor's Palace in 
     Sevierville.
       During his broadcast heyday in the 1960s and '70s, the Rev. 
     Mull was heard on a network of powerful radio stations that 
     carried his preaching and concerts coast-to-coast.
       Family vacations were rare, said Hutchison, who said his 
     grandfather ``believed in work.''
       Once, however, the family took a trip to the Bahamas, and a 
     waiter at a restaurant instantly recognized the Rev. Mull's 
     voice when he ordered a meal. The Bahamian was a regular 
     listener to the ``Mull Singing Convention,'' which reached 
     the islands via New Orleans radio station WWL.
       J. Bazzel and Elizabeth Mull were inducted into the Gospel 
     Music Association Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Southern 
     Gospel Music Association's Southern Gospel Hall of Fame.
       The Rev. Mull presented top Southern gospel acts at his 
     concerts, including fellow Hall of Fame members the Chuck 
     Wagon Gang. Hutchison said his grandfather discovered the 
     group, moving it from Texas to Knoxville.
       Like his good friend Cas Walker, the millionaire grocer and 
     politician who died in 1998 at age 96, the Rev. Mull truly 
     achieved the status of icon in his home region.
       Most longtime Knoxvillians have a J. Bazzel Mull story to 
     tell, or at least have uttered a gravelly ``Ain't that right, 
     Mizz Mull?'' at some point in their lives.
       The Rev. Mull had personality, his grandson said. ``He 
     loved to laugh and he loved to preach. And he would mix the 
     two. He'd tell a joke to break the ice, then he would preach 
     to you before you knew what happened.''
       That voice the Rev. Mull's extended neighbors knew so well 
     and loved to imitate was naturally his own, his grandson 
     said. ``He never smoked; he never drank, nothing. That was 
     just his voice. And it was very distinctive.''
       WJBZ will pay tribute to the Rev. Mull all this week. 
     Listeners and gospel music artists will share their memories 
     on air.
       The funeral service will be Thursday at Mann Heritage 
     Chapel, 6200 Kingston Pike.
       Receiving of friends will be 2-4 p.m. and 5-8 p.m., with a 
     service following. The Revs. Mike Ramage and Dino Bray will 
     officiate.
       The burial service will be 11 a.m. Friday in Lenoir City. 
     Internment will be at Lakeview Cemetery at Lenoir City Park.
       ``Its hard to be sad for him at 91,'' Hutchison said of his 
     grandfather's death. ``The sorrow is for us, the joy is for 
     him. He can see now and the first thing he had ever seen was 
     the face of Jesus.''

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