Virgil Oliver Stamps (1892–1940) was a shape note promoter, singer, composer, and singing school teacher. He was the first to promote southern-style gospel singing across America using radio and published the most song books in America for decades.
Biography
V. O. Stamps was born in and raised in the Stamps Community in Upshur County, Texas, and was a key individual in early gospel music publishing. As a youth, he worked with his father in a sawmill, and used his earnings to purchase every gospel songbook he could find. In 1907 he attended the singing school of Richard M. Morgan. Sometime after that, his father bought a small store and V. O. worked there while teaching singing schools until 1914.
In 1924 he founded the V. O. Stamps Music Company in Jacksonville, Texas. At one point they represented over 100 quartets on radio stations across America.
Among the songs written by V. O. Stamps are "Love Is the Key," "Singing on My Way," and "I Am Going."
V. O. Stamps was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1973 along with his brother Frank Stamps. The pair were also both inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Southern Gospel Music Association in 1997 along with J.R. Baxter and his wife Clarice.
Stamps Quartet
Virgil O. Stamps and Frank Stamps started The Frank Stamps All Star Quartet (also referred to as Stamps Quartet) in Gilmer, Texas in 1924 in which V.O. Stamps sang base. Frank Stamps also taught in the music school for decades before dying in 1965.