Ray overholt biography

Overholt, known for being Grand Rapids' first TV singing cowboy, died Sunday as he was getting into the van for his Grand Rapids concert.
Ray Overholt, author of “Ten Thousand Angels,” was indeed led to accept Christ as his Savior and has surely led countless others to the cross —.
Gospel Songwriter, Singer.

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Nancy Nobile described her father, Roy Overholt, 89, who died on Sunday, as a local celebrity around Brookfield. In the impressionable eyes of countless Little League baseball players, as well as appreciative coaches who participated in the Roy A. Overholt Invitational Tournament, he was much more than that. He was a fellow baseball fanatic, a valued friend, a role model and a legend.

Marty Berek, who coached the Brookfield Flaming Red Hot Cheetos at Overholt in 2009, summed up the tournament founder’s impact through the traditional late-summer event.

“Mr. Overholt is a legend when you’re talking about baseball in Brookfield,” Berek said. “He was always very involved with the tournament and set it to such a high standard.”

Overholt, who was born on May 1, 1924 in the Hollywood section of Brookfield, graduated from Riverside-Brookfield High School in 1942. After high school, he joined the Armed Forces and served with the 7th Army in Europe until 1945. After returning home, he married his wife, Audrey, and the couple eventually moved back to Br

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STORY BEHIND THE SONG: A man saved by 'Ten Thousand Angels'

“He could have called ten thousand angels

To destroy the world and set Him free.

He could have called ten thousand angels,

But He died alone for you and me.”

It is rare when a man is led to Christ by his own composition.

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But Ray Overholt, author of “Ten Thousand Angels,” was indeed led to accept Christ as his Savior and has surely led countless others to the cross — and still continues to today.

When Overholt was interviewed by The Log in 2008, he was 84 and blind. He passed away six months later.

Born in 1924 in Gaines, Mich., Overholt’s mother, Clara, was a singer and played piano and encouraged her son as a young boy.

“My dad bought me a $3 guitar, and I began singing when I was 11,” Overholt told The Log at that time. “I also listened to Gene Autry’s music and was inspired by him.”

By the time he was 10, Overholt had written his first song, “The Lonesome Cowboy,” and had learned to play keyboard and harmonica.

Growing up on a farm in Middl

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Christian singer-songwriter Ray Overholt dies at 84

BATTLE CREEK -- Christian singer-songwriter Ray Overholt was "all dressed up" Sunday to make the trip from his Battle Creek home to Grand Rapids, where he was scheduled to perform a concert at Faith Reformed Church in Wyoming.

"Isn't that incredible? He never wanted to stop," Becky Davis said of her 84-year-old grandfather. "When it was time to sing, he was raring to go. You put him on that stage, and he'd just come to life."

Overholt, known for being Grand Rapids' first TV singing cowboy, died Sunday as he was getting into the van for his Grand Rapids concert. It is assumed heart failure was the cause.
The Gaines Township native had a budding career as a Grand Rapids-area cowboy-country music singer in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He had a country-western-style radio program and a TV show, "Ray's Roundup," on WOOD-TV from 1948 to 1952 that included guests Stewart Hamlin and Ray Price.

His music has been recorded by at least 100 artists, including Kate Smith, Lor