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Walter Hawkins was born May 18, 1949 and started his career in one of his brother, Edwin’s chorales. Later, he accompanied Edwin in founding the legendary Edwin Hawkins Singers. The Edwin Hawkins Singers are perhaps most famous for their hit song “Oh Happy Day”, which became one of the first gospel songs to cross over onto mainstream music charts.
Hawkins left the group in the early 1970s to establish the Love Center Church in Oakland, California. He released several successful albums with Love Center Choir including their “Love Alive” series of recordings which sold well over a million copies from the 1970s through the 1990s and beyond. “Love Alive IV”, was released in 1990 and stayed for 33 weeks at the top of the Billboard Gospel Album charts. Hawkins is recorded as having produced and/or collaborated on 116 hit songs which were listed on the Billboard Gospel Music charts.
On July 11, 2010, Walter Hawkins died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61 in his house in Ripon, California.
