Last week, I celebrated my 10th anniversary at Singing News. In many ways, it seems like I pulled into the parking lot for the first time just yesterday. But in many other ways, I feel like I've been here a lot longer than 10 years.

Jonathan Wilburn of Gold City started with that quartet a few months after I started with Singing News, and when Gold City was in town last week for the Greenes' Jubilee, we sat behind the product tables and we more or less replayed our lives' history. We've known each other since we were teens and neither one has been afraid to tell the other one what we thought - on any subject. For example, if we were at a concert and he asked me what I thought about his performance, I'd tell him the truth. If his performance "stunk to the highest" (as an old cartoon character once said), I'd tell him such. And if I had said something in the magazine he didn't like, he'd tell me.

More often that not, though, we tend to agree on most things. So, while we talking last week, we tried to come up with what was the most significant event in Southern Gospel Music during the past 10 years. I'll cut to the chase - we never came up with one single thing. So, I guess he and I'll continue that discussion this week in Seminole, OK.

But that exchange of thoughts has brought to mind many events that have taken place since August 8, 1995. A lot of great things have occured in Southern Gospel Music since then, but at the same time, we've lost many of our pioneers, our earthly heroes and standard-setters. During the next entries into this diary, I'll talk about some of the events that have shaped the last ten years, but I think it's only fitting that we take a few days and remember our friends who are no longer with us.

I'll start with Kenny Hinson. Kenny passed away about two weeks (July 27) before my first day at Singing News. If I remember correctly, I only saw the Hinsons on stage about four times. But I did meet Kenny at various industry events on numerous occasions and he was always polite and a joy to talk to. A great singer, we all know. But he was a great individual and that loss is something that Southern Gospel Music has not quiet recovered from yet - and may never.

On May 17, 1996, Coy Cook passed away. This former tenor of the Florida Boys was loved by many and according to Jerry Kirksey, was responsible for many of the funniest road storied you'll ever hear. I never met Coy, but based on the recollections of people like Jerry, Les Beasley and Glen Allred, there was never a dull moment if Coy was in the room.

Anyone remember the Merediths? They were a group from South Carolina that I first encountered during my days at the Eddie Crook Company recording empire of the early 1990s. In fact, there were one of the first groups to be signed to the CedarHill label (that's your trivia for the day). An aggressive group in the marketing aspect, Dik (yes, that's the way he spelled his name), his son Brett and daugher Alesia, were on the verge of entering Southern Gospel Music on a very large scale when he lost a long battle with cancer on June 8 of that year. Dik was an evangelist for the Salvation Army and it is my understanding that Brett is continuing that legacy.

Barely a week later (on June 15, 1996 to be exact), I attended the funeral of Wendy Bagwell. I'm not sure, but Wendy's passing could be one of the biggest shocks - if not the biggest - Southern Gospel Music has experienced. No one saw that one coming. For instance, we all watched Brock Speer and George Younce gradually slip away. But Wendy was the picture of health and no one in this business will ever forget where they were when they learned Wendy had collapsed at a restuarant near Atlanta. The aneurysm that struck Wendy robbed Southern Gospel Music of more years of fun - and a genuinely honest person who's generosity is still being felt ten years later.

While we're talking about Wendy, let me share this with you. Back when I was on the radio in Georgia, I had a Sunday afternoon Gospel program and as we were located just off I-20 between Atlanta and Augusta, many artists would stop by the station as they were either on their way to a date or on the way back home.

At that station, we played a lot of Wendy Bagwell's stories and songs. And it never failed - if Wendy was passing through the area and heard his material, he'd pull off at the exit, get on a pay phone (pre-cell phone days) and give me a call. He was very appreciative of someone playing his records - he didn't take it for granted - and he wanted every station to know how greatful he was. It didn't matter that he had called me two or three weeks prior - if he heard it, he let me know. Never asked for a single thing - he just said thank you.

That might be a good lesson for today.