Last Sunday, as he was preparing to leave for a concert in Wyoming, Country Gospel music artist and songwriter Ray Overholt passed away. He was 84-years-old.
Well-known first in the Michigan area, Overholt was one of the area’s first singing cowboys, entertaining kids each weekday morning with his show, “Ray’s Roundup.” Overholt would play his guitar and sing, while his sidekick Shorty would spin some tall tales.
Overholt was active in gospel “hillbilly” music for years before he wrote one of his signature songs, “Ten Thousand Angels,” which changed his life.

In a 2007 interview with SoGospelNews.com, Overholt explains that he was playing nightclubs when he realized he needed to quit the drinking, smoking bar lifestyle. Overholt wasn’t a Christian but he knew people were praying for him, and while he’d written many songs, he’d never written one about Jesus. He thought that was a good place to start, so he opened the Bible and started reading about Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. “I read where Jesus told Peter that he could ask his Father and he would send twelve legions of angels,” he told SoGospelNews.com. “I didn’t know at the time that that would have been more than 72,000 angels.”
Overholt wrote the first verse of a song he called “He Could Have Called Ten Thousand Angels,” and eventually sent it to a publishing house, which reluctantly agreed to publish it.
Here’s where the story gets good: sometime later, he was singing at a small church, and after his performance the preacher gave a salvation message. “I knew I needed Christ,” Overholt said, “so I knelt there and accepted, as my Savior, the One whom I had been singing and writing about.”
Overholt wrote the song that eventually led him to Christ. Cool, eh?
The Battle Creek Enquirer said in Overholt’s obituary that:

He sold the rights to “Ten Thousand Angels” for $25 in 1958 to Lillenas Publishing House “so that others could share in its message too,” according to a 1972 Enquirer article. But when sales started to climb, the company gave Overholt full songwriter’s rights, allowing the composer to receive royalties and work full-time in gospel ministry.

“Ten Thousand Angels” sold 1 million copies by the 1970s.
Ray Overholt went on to write hundreds of songs which were recorded by the likes of Kate Smith, Loretta Lynn and Janie Fricke, including one of the most recorded songs in Gospel Music History, “Hallelujah Square.” The song was nominated for three Gospel Music Association Dove Awards in consecutive years.
According to the Singing News website, Ray Overholt’s funeral will be tomorrow, Friday, September 19 2008 at 11:00 a.m. in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Condolences may be sent to his wife Millie at:
Overholt Family
112 S. 26th
Battle Creek, MI 49015
(Photo is of Ray Overholz and the Gospel Harmony Boys.)