Dottie Rambo: The Gifted Songwriter of the Twentieth Century (Part 19)

Dottie Rambo on Dove Nightline (Part 8)



Dottie Rambo--Walking Toward Recovery (Part 1)



Part 2



Part 3



Part 4



For a number of years after Buck and Dottie made the decision to save their marriage and re-focus on the Lord, Dottie continued writing her songs and singing.  Back in 1981 she and Buck relocated to California to be close to their daughter Reba, and son-in-law Dony McGuire.  Buck and Dottie formed a close friendship with Paul and Jan Crouch, founders of TBN.  Out of that friendship Buck and Dottie made numerous appearances on TBN and even helped out with telethon.  TBN also awarded Dottie with her own program entitled, "The Dottie Rambo Magazine" which ran for six years.  In the midst of their singing on television, tragedy struck Dottie.  According to Buck Rambo on the book entitled, The Legacy of Buck and Dottie Rambo, tragedy struck Dottie as soon they arrived back from their mission trip to West Indies, which was around October 1986. 

Tragedy struck Dottie when she was prepping up for an upcoming telethon on TBN.  As she was sitting in the makeup chair, she felt a pain in her lower back.  It felt like knives protruding her back.  What happened was there were two calified discs that had ruptured in her back.  They were sawing her spinal cord.  As a result, Dottie would be screaming.  She was in so much pain that she could hardly stand it.  She would be crying 23 out of 24 hours.  She could only sleep one hour a day.  No medicine that could be given for pain helped her.  At the time she and Buck both lived in Atlanta Georgia.  She went into the hospital for surgery.  The surgeon cleaned out the column but he didn't fuse her.  He was supposed to fuse her but why her spine wasn't fused we don't know.  I conclude it was due to negligence on the doctor's part. Since the spine wasn't fused there was a hole left there and she was left in excruciating pain.  The pain was so unbearable she couldn't stand it.  She once remarked to Pat Robertson on a January 1992 appearance on the 700 Club that the pain was so unbearable it would cause somebody who didn't know Jesus to want to kill himself.  That's how terrible the pain was. 

I will continue with this discussion concerning her back on next Sunday's post.  You can click on the YouTube posts "Walking Toward Recovery" to find out the details about Dottie's dilemma with her back.