Willmer broadnax biography

Willmer M. "Little Axe" Broadnax was an American hard gospel quartet singer during the golden age of traditional black gospel.
Willmer “Little Axe” Broadnax was an American gospel singer in the mid-20th century.
Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Willmer Broadnax, also known as “Little Axe”, was a leading gospel quartet singer during the genre's Golden.

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Wilmer “Little Axe” Broadnax, December 28, 1916 – 1994, was a gospel singer who worked and recorded with many of the most famous gospel groups of his day, including The Golden Echoes, one of the top touring gospel quartet groups of the 40s, and the renowned Spirit of Memphis Quartet.

Little Axe, Big Voice

Broadnax was born in Houston. Both he and his brother, Big Axe, were singers. Broadnax developed a strong tenor voice, and in the mid ’40s they moved to Southern California to advance their singing careers.

By the 1950s, Broadnax was performing with one of the most impressive line-ups in gospel quartet history: the Spirit of Memphis Quartet. Broadnax appears on the cover of the book, Happy In Service Of Lord: African-American Sacred Vocal Harmony, with the Spirit of Memphis. He went on to work with the Fairfield Four and the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. In the early 60s, Broadnax fronted a quartet called Little Axe and the Golden Voices.

He retired from touring shortly thereafter, though he continued to record occasionally with the Five Blind Boys of Mi

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Willmer Broadnax (1916-1992) was a trans man who was a professional gospel singer whose career spanned from 1930 through occasional recordings in the 1980s. He was the lead singer of his own group, which included his brother, William. Broadnax began singing during his teen years in his native Houston. He and William then moved to Los Angeles and sang with the Southern Gospel Singers until they decided to break away and start their own group called, Little Axe (Willmer’s nickname) and the Golden Echoes. The Golden Echoes toured throughout the 1940s, and in 1949 recorded a version of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Broadnax went on to sing and/or record with the Spirit of Memphis Quartet, the Fairfield Four and the Blindboys of Mississippi and another version.

Broadnax was stabbed by a woman who had been his romantic interest named Lavinia Richardson. A jealous Broadnax saw her in a car with another man and physically pulled her out of the car. He threatened her with a knife, but she stabbed him with the same knife three times after he was restrained by a by-stander. He died da

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Michael Corcoran's Overserved

Gospel fans and fellow performers wondered about quartet singer Willmer Broadnax, nicknamed “Little Ax,” whose brother William was called “Big Ax” because at 5’ 7” he towered over Willmer. When he hit those impossibly high notes as a member of the Spirit of Memphis and Fairfield Four quartets, it wasn’t falsetto. That was his natural voice.

In the liner notes to Shanachie’s 2000 compilation Kings of the Gospel Highway, music historian Anthony Heilbut confirmed suspicions of Little Ax’s gender when he wrote that after Broadnax was stabbed to death in 1992, the autopsy revealed that he had female genitalia. Little Ax had passed as a man for 50 years! “But, of course,” sang gospel’s gossip choir. Broadnax looked and sang like a woman in a man’s suit.

But although the trans revelation explained a lot, it was presented without any evidence to back it up.

In recent years Willmer Broadnax has become a hero in the online LBGTQ community, with the story about a woman presenting as male because it was easier to get popular in a male gospel quartet t