Dottie Rambo: The Gifted Songwriter of the Twentieth Century (Part 1)

Unmerited Favor



I Heard Footsteps



I failed to mention in the introductory post of "Dottie Rambo: The Gifted Songwriter of the Twentieth Century" that Dottie Rambo was killed in a bus accident along Interstate 44 on May 11, 2008.  She died of injuries as a result of the accident.  She was on a bus headed to a special Mother's Day event in Texas who was supposed to sing with Lulu Roman and Naomi Sego.  The 1997 Prevost bus she was traveling struck a guard rail and hit an enbankment.  Rambo was pronounced dead on the scene.  Larry Ferguson, Rambo's manager was injured on the bus as well as another passenger, Chris Barnes.  It took place at 2:00 a.m.  There were severe storms that took place that day.  However, it was later revealed it wasn't weather-related.

I'm sure some may wonder why I have taken such a keen interest in the life of Dottie Rambo.  The first time I became aware of her was when I was a young child.  My father had bought a double album of gospel greats three decades ago.  One of the songs on the album was "He Looked Beyond My Faults and Saw My Need."  It was sung by the Rambos.  When I was a teenager I recall when I first heard the song, "I've Never Been This Homesick Before" and I remember hearing she penned the song.  Then in 1991 I recall hearing about her being in poor health as a result of her back rupturing during a TBN telethon.  Otherwise, my knowledge about her was primarily sketchy.  It wasn't until a few months after she died that I started taking an interest in her.  Prior to her death back in 2007, I was listening to the "Radio Church Chapel" on Owensboro's local radio station on 1490 WOMI AM.  Edith Bennett, who hosted that show, was playing a song Dottie Rambo wrote and sung entitled, "I Will Glory in the Cross."  Periodically she would play that song during her Sunday morning program on WOMI.  I enjoyed that song so much that I decided to go to the Christian bookstore to find a CD with a copy of that song.  Unfortunately, I never did find a Rambo CD which contained the song "I Will Glory in the Cross."  So one day in the fall of 2008, a few months after Rambo died, I decided to search for the song on YouTube.  I found the song and I listened to it.  It was from listening to that song on YouTube that I started listening to other Dottie Rambo songs.  Then before you know it, I viewed a program which was then featured on DottieRambo.net entitled, "The Dottie Rambo Story" from the Inspiration Network.  That peaked my interest even further.  Then things proceeded on from there.   Then in 2009 I applied for an interlibrary loan to read a book entitled, "The Legacy of Buck and Dottie Rambo."  It was during the Spring of 2009 that I first began the essay on Dottie Rambo.  However, I didn't feel my knowledge about her was adequate at that time, so I didn't continue writing the essay.  Two years later and after two other YouTube specials talking about the life of the late Dottie Rambo, I feel I possess enough information to proceed forward with this essay.  It was a struggle trying to pinpoint the dates when certain events took place.  I've heard different dates from different sources concerning particular events in her life.  I'm a stickler on dates because it gives me a sense of chronology and it helps me to understand the sequence of events.  I'll do my best in presenting all the facts I know from listening to Dottie Rambo specials over the last two years.  Now let's get started into tracing the journey of this spectacular songwriter.

Dotttie Rambo's Early Life

Joyce Reba "Dottie" Lutrell was born on March 2, 1934 in Madisonville, Kentucky to Vernon "Chick" and Elizabeth Lutrell.  She was one of eleven children.  When she was real little she was so small that she was given the nickname, "Little Dottie."  Thus, the name Dottie stuck with her throughout her entire life.  I'm not sure about her particular birth order.  From what I've heard her say, I believe she had a younger brother and sister.   I know she had two older brothers.  One of them was named Eddie and the other one was J.D., I believe.  She also had an older sister named Nellie as well.  She was born in the midst of the Great Depression.  Like many other families, the Great Depression impacted most families during that time.  The family didn't possess many earthly goods.  Even though she was born in Madisonville, she didn't stay there very long.  Her father moved their family to Morganfield, Kentucky where he was charge of a German prisoner-of-war camp.  He worked for the government and he was in charge of the German prisoners-of-war.  Dottie's mother was a wonderful Christian lady.  Her father was a strict disciplinarian.  He was a drunkard and he had no interest in spiritual things.  He wasn't a Christian at the time.  He was physically abusive to Dottie's mother and mentally abusive to Dottie and her brother Eddie.  When Dottie was eight years old she was out playing by the creek.  She was barefoot and had her feet in the water.  It was during this particular day that she discovered for the first time the gift God had endowed her with.  She composed her first song.  She was eight years old.  In an interview with Joanne Thompson on Dove Nightline a few years ago, Dottie stated she couldn't recall the name of the first song.  I've read somewhere that the song she composed had words that rhymed with profanity.  She wasn't saved at the time she wrote her first song and she was around those that cursed constantly when she was young.  She was raised around a family of sinners with the exception of her mother and Nellie.  After composing her first song, she went inside the house and sang it to her mother.  It caught her mother's attention.  Her mother asked her, "You didn't get this out of a songbook did you?"  Dottie said, "No, mother."   Elizabeth told her, "Darling, you'll pay a dear price for this gift."  Those couldn't be truer words.  Truthfully speaking, Dottie has paid a great price throughout her life with the gift of songwriting that God placed in her.  She never realized then how soon she would have to pay a price for her gift for the very first time.  I'm going to end this first post right here and pick up from here on part 2 on the next post.