Dorothy Clara Reid, director of music at Southside Presbyterian Church for more than two decades and who was well-known for gospel music performances with Tucson choirs, died Feb. 8 after a fall in her home. She was 76.
The fall fractured Reid’s left hip and she died before her scheduled surgery at St. Joseph’s Hospital, said her daughter Dotti Benjamin.
A memorial service is set for 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 7, at the church at 317 W. 23rd St. Choir members from several churches will sing at the service — the day of what would have been Reid’s 77th birthday.
Benjamin said her mother believed everyone could sing, “you just had to find them their song. She touched a lot of people in the community and encouraged them to sing gospel music in church,” recalled her daughter.
Close friend Georgia Vancza said Reid “was a real force and educator in the Tucson community” who was well-known in African American churches “as a powerful singer, outstanding pianist and a no-nonsense choir director.”
Vancza said it was a privilege and the best education learning to sing gospel music under Reid’s direction.
Reid, who was born in 1943, started playing the piano at age 5 when she was living with her grandparents in Fayette, Alabama. Her grandfather, the late Rev. Joseph Thompson, was pastor of the First Baptist Church and arranged lessons for Reid, who began playing at church services when she was 9, Benjamin said.
When she was 13, she was taking music classes at Cincinnati University Conservatory of Music, and when she was older she studied at Alabama State University in Montgomery and helped stuff envelopes with information about mass meetings during the Civil Rights Movement, according to a 2014 Arizona Daily Star article.
In the article, Reid recalled marching once from Selma to Montgomery with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and the more scared the marchers became, the louder they sang.
Her talents also had her performing jazz and rhythm and blues in the lounge circuit around the country.
In the 1980s, Reid moved to Tucson with her now ex-husband who served in the Air Force. She began her music ministry and served as director of music, including at a chapel at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, Prince Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church and Ideal Baptist Church.
She also founded the Tucson Arizona Mass Choir in 1999, a spiritual ministry that grew out of a music theory class she taught at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, according to the choir’s website. The choir performed at various events in Tucson and Phoenix, including in front of Gov. Janet Napolitano before she took a position with President Barack Obama’s cabinet in 2009.
The Tucson Arizona Mass Choir has given concerts at numerous multicultural events, including the Blues Heritage Festival at Reid Park, and has performed at numerous churches and before interfaith congregations.
Reid wrote songs that were performed by members of Southside Presbyterian choir and Tucson Arizona Mass Choir and recorded on CDs.
In the 2014 article, Reid talked about the deterioration of her health, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and arthritis in her spine and knees.
Yet, she found peace in singing and praising God. “I can walk into church feeling terrible, but for that hour or two hours, I’m OK,” Reid said.
