Donald Vails

Vails was born on December 25, 1948, in Atlanta, Georgia, as Donald Raymond Vails, Jr.,[1] whose parents sent him to a nursery school at Gospel Choral Union, and this instilled in him a love of gospel music and the piano.[2][3] He was reared in the church in his hometown at Mt. Zion Baptist Church.[2][3] He was leading a choir by age twelve, and after high school, as an eighteen-year-old relocated to Detroit, Michigan to pursue a degree in engineering at Detroit Institute of Technology.[2][3] While he was doing this, he formed The Choraleers in 1969.[2][3] Vails relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1985 to attain a Master's Degree in Music at Howard University.[2][3] During this time, he became a member of Ebenezer AME Church located in Fort Washington, Maryland, and this caused the church's choir to grow from 40 to 175 participants in the span of a couple of months.[2][3] He established, Salvation Corporation, during his time in D.C., which was an 80-member interdenominational choir.[2][3]

He began his recorded music career in 1977, with the release of Donald Vails Choraleers on Savoy Records.[4] His sixteen albums made the Billboard magazine Gospel Albums chart, for five of those releases.[5] Those releases are the following; He Promised a New Life in 1984 with Savoy Records at No. 32,[4][5] No. 17 for Yesterday, Today and Forever with Sound of Gospel in 1986,[4][5] 1987's Until the Rapture at No. 11 with Sound of Gospel,[4][5] In Jesus Christ I Have Everything I Need again with Sound of Gospel in 1990 peaking at No. 26,[4][5] and 1994's A Sunday Morning Songbook at No. 33 with Savoy Records.[4][5] They would achieve a gold album certification by the RIAA and a Grammy Award nomination for their 1978 album, He Decided To Die, with Savoy Records.[2][3]

Vails was married to Janine Vails (née, Anderson) at the time of his death on September 10, 1997, from a lengthy illness in Clinton, Maryland. He was survived by two children, Brian and Carmen.[1][3]

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