Mother Lou Della Evans Reid

Mother Lou Della Evans Reid was born on July 7, 1930, in Brownsville, Tennessee, to Henry Clay and Estanauly Evans.

In 1950, Mother Reid became a founding member of Chicago’s Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, which was led by her elder brother, the Reverend Clay Evans. By 1960, she had established herself as a surgical nurse in Chicago, initially working at Saint Anne’s Hospital and later at Saint Luke’s.

In 1963, she was appointed Minister of Music at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, where she managed the senior, young adult, and youth choirs, in addition to teaching Sunday School. Her musical arrangements include “Bringing In The Sheaves” and “New Name In Glory,” while her hymnal performances feature “It Is Well,” “More Love To Thee,” and “Close To Thee.” Evans Reid concluded her tenure as Minister of Music at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in 2000.

After retiring, she took on the role of music adviser for Chicago’s First Church of Deliverance and led her own community choir, the Lou Della Evans Reid Traditional Gospel Choir. Evans Reid stepped down from her position as a surgical nurse in 2007. She also served as the music coordinator for Gospel Music According to Chicago (GMAC), where she was a board member. Her teaching, consulting, and ministry work extended both nationally and internationally, including engagements in Japan, the Netherlands, and Israel. She retired from GMAC and her Traditional Gospel Choir in 2023.

In 2000, Evans Reid was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Residing in Chicago, Illinois, Evans Reid and her late husband, Robert Louis Reid, had one son, Eldred Lois Reid, and one daughter, Tonia L. Johnson. She was blessed with three grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and six great-great-grandchildren.

Mother Lou Della Evans Reid was a renowned gospel choir director who passed away and went to be with the Lord on July 5, 2025, at the age of 94. Her dynamic style of choir directing was a remarkable spectacle in its own right.

Hastily moving across the church altar, her fist trembling, passionately striking the notes, and her index finger raised toward the heavens, it seemed as though Lou Della Evans Reid was literally pulling the spirit of the Lord from her choir.

Chicago is recognized as the cradle of contemporary gospel music, and Ms. Evans Reid stood as one of the last remaining members of the groundbreaking generation of gospel legends who established the city’s significance in this genre.