Lou Della Evans Reid

Gospel singer Lou Della Evans Reid was born on July 7, 1930, in Brownsville, Tennessee, to Henry Clay and Estanauly Evans.

In 1950, Evans Reid became a charter member of Chicago’s Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, led by her older brother, Reverend Clay Evans. In 1960, she became a surgical nurse in Chicago, working first at Saint Anne’s Hospital, then at Saint Luke’s. She was appointed Minister of Music at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in 1963, where she oversaw the senior, young adult, and youth choirs and taught Sunday School. Her arrangements include “Bringing In The Sheaves” and “New Name In Glory” and her hymnal renditions include “It Is Well,” “More Love To Thee,” and “Close To Thee.” Evans Reid retired as Minister of Music for Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in 2000. In retirement, she served as music adviser for Chicago’s First Church of Deliverance and led her own community choir, the Lou Della Evans Reid Traditional Gospel Choir. Evans Reid retired from being a surgical nurse in 2007. She served as music coordinator for Gospel Music According to Chicago (GMAC), where she also has served on the board. She has taught, consulted, and ministered nationally and internationally, including in Japan, the Netherlands, and Israel. She retired from GMAC and her Traditional Gospel Choir in 2023.

In 2000, Evans Reid received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Arkansas Baptist College, in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Evans Reid lives in Chicago, Illinois. She and her late husband, Robert Louis Reid, had one son, Eldred Lois Reid, and one daughter, Tonia L. Johnson. She has three grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and six great-great grandchildren.

Lou Della Evans Reid was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on March 3, 2022.