W.Va.’s First Lady Of Gospel Dies At 75

Mount Hope native Ethel Caffie-Austin died on Dec. 11 

She started playing the piano when she was six years old and by nine was accompanying her minister father during his services. While studying at the West Virginia Institute of Technology, she formed an “underground gospel” group, as she called it, which, at one point, had about 40 student members.

She worked for 20 years as an English teacher in public schools, but her music, both as a solo performer and with the various gospel choirs she created, led to performances around the world. Caffie-Austin performed with her group Christ Inspiration Delegation at the Port Townsend Folk Festival in Washington state and toured several times in Europe, and later in Zimbabwe. She also performed at renowned venues in the U.S., including DAR Constitution Hall, Wolf Trap and the Kennedy Center. 

Caffie-Austin became a fixture at Charleston’s Vandalia Gathering, and founded the Black Sacred Music Festival at West Virginia State University.

In 2006, the state Department of Arts, Culture & History bestowed upon her the Vandalia Award, West Virginia’s highest folklife honor, and she was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2020.
Celebrations of Caffie-Austin’s life will be held Friday and Saturday, before she is laid to rest Monday in South Charleston.