Clarence Fountain, a founder of the Blind Boys of Alabama, dies at 88
BATON ROUGE, La. — A founding member of the Grammy-winning gospel group the Blind Boys of Alabama has died. Clarence Fountain was 88. Fountain died Sunday in a hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he had been taken Friday, manager Charles Driebe of Atlanta said in an email Monday. The group won four Grammys, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, and were members of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Fountain is survived by his wife, Barbara. The family planned a private viewing Monday at their church, with a public funeral Tuesday at a larger church, which had not yet been chosen, Driebe wrote. Fountain stopped touring with the group in 2007 because of complications from diabetes, but sang on their 2017 album, “Almost Home,” according a statement from Driebe’s Blind Ambition Management. It said the album grew out of the realization that only Fountain, the group’s longtime leader, and its current leader...