Delores “Mom” Winans Turned 90 and Her Children Serenaded Her With Songs of Praise
Delores “Mom” Winans turned 90 in September and her family gave her a celebration worthy of a woman who raised gospel music royalty. There was a birthday celebration followed by a Sunday full of praise and worship at Perfecting Church where her son Bishop Marvin Winans pastors in Detroit. Her children came ready to sing, and sing they did!
When I saw the clip of BeBe and Debbie singing “Midnight Hour,” I played it back more times than I can count. That song was made for those two! Debbie’s voice is everything, and she holds her own right beside her big brother. You could tell they weren’t performing for the crowd. They were singing to their momma!
Mom Winans was born Delores Ransom in Detroit in 1936. She learned piano as a girl and later played for the Lucille Lemon Gospel Chorus, which is where she met David Winans. They married in 1953 and had ten children. Years later, after the kids were grown and famous in their own right, she and Pop finally made an album of their own. Mom and Pop Winans came out in 1989 and earned a Grammy nomination. Pop passed in 2009.
Carvin Winans has talked about the family singing around the piano when they were young and how their parents noticed what each child could do. CeCe and BeBe have said their parents taught them to stick together, even through disagreements, and to treat one sibling’s success as everybody’s success. I think about that whenever I hear them sing together.
CeCe posted her own tribute on the big day. She wished her mother a happy 90th and thanked her for the laughter that filled their home growing up, and she added Proverbs 17:22 about a merry heart being good medicine. Anybody who has seen Mom Winans smile knows why CeCe chose that verse.
What stays with me is how ordinary it all started. Before the Grammys and the sold-out tours, there was a mother in Detroit playing piano for her children and teaching them to sing about Jesus. Thirty or forty years from now, I hope somebody is still singing the songs their mother taught them at home.
Happy 90th birthday, Mom Winans. We love you and we thank God for you.
