Anthony Burger Passes Away

Last night I received the rather shocking news that Anthony Burger had passed away suddenly. Most of you who read this blog won't know who he was, but he was one of the most talented piano players in Southern Gospel music (from SingingNews.com):

Pianist Anthony Burger died Wednesday night after suffering an apparent heart attack. He was 44. Anthony was in the Caribbean aboard a Bill Gaither Homecoming cruise this week and it was during one of Wednesday's performances when he suffered the heart attack. A family spokesman said Burger was doing what he loved best, playing the piano, just before collapsing.

Anthony is survived by his wife LuAnn, two sons, AJ and Austin; a daughter, Lori; his mother and father, Richard and Jean Burger; two brothers, Randy and Clinton Burger, and countless friends and loved ones.

When Anthony was very small, an infant creeper he was sitting in and used to scoot around the house fell into a heating grate and Anthony was very badly burned on his hands. The doctors told the family that he's probably never have much use of them. Boy, were they wrong.

Anthony joined the Kingsmen Quartet as their pianist when he was only 16, and for 10 straight years was voted Southern Gospel's favorite piano player. They finally named the award after him and retired him from the competition. I had a chance to work with Anthony on concerts several times, and always found him to be a very gracious guy. He was also pretty tough. One night at Long Beach Jordan High School the Kingsmen were doing one of their bits featuring Anthony in which he does a run down the keys and then pretends to fall off the piano bench. The piano was stationed a little closer to the orchestra pit than Anthony realized, and when he feel off the bench he tumbled about 6 feet down into the pit on his head. I was sitting right there and jumped up expecting to see Anthony sprawled unconscious at the bottom of the pit, but he jumped right up, climbed out and kept playing (he told me later that he was pretty sore for a few days).

After leaving the Kingsmen some years ago Anthony went to work for Bill Gaither and performed in hundreds of arena-sized shows all over the country with the Gaither Homecoming Concerts. He was a fan favorite everywhere he performed.

Gospel music lost a legend at a very young age. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.