Roger Bennett Has Gone Home

I lost a friend today. Roger Bennett, formerly the piano player for The Cathedral Quartet and more recently a founding member of Legacy Five passed away this morning after a years long battle with cancer. Roger was only 48 years old. This is Roger on the left in a photo taken with my piano player Tom Moore at the 1999 Great Western Quartet Convention:
Here's more biographical info on Roger from The Singing News website:

Legacy Five pianist Roger Bennett died today as a result of complications encountered though his long battle with leukemia. He was 48 years old.

Born March 10, 1959, Roger grew up in Strawberry, Arkansas. In November of 1979, Roger fulfilled his life-long dream of being a part of professional Southern Gospel music when he was invited by Glen Payne and George Younce to join the legendary Cathedral Quartet. Though he would leave the group for two years (1987-1989) to serve as the president of Journey Records, Roger was the group's pianist at the time of the quartet's retirement in 1999.

Following the retirement of the Cathedrals, Roger and fellow Cathedrals member Scott Fowler launched Legacy Five. In 2004, Roger fulfilled another dream (having his own successful quartet) when readers of Singing News voted Legacy Five as the Favorite Traditional Male Quartet.

Although an excellent singer, Roger is best remembered as pianist--and often a comedian--for the Cathedrals and Legacy Five. Roger received the Singing News Fan Award for Favorite Southern Gospel pianist 14 years in row (1993-2006).

Songwriting was another forte' of Roger Bennett. Many of his songs appeared on the recordings of the Cathedrals, Legacy Five and many others. His writing talent was not limited to just songs, however. Roger was a contributing editor to Singing News, writing "Midnight Meditations."

Roger leaves behind his wife (Debbie), their children (Chelsea and Jordan) and father (Doug). Funeral arrangements are pending.

I got to know Roger over the years as we performed together at various times, and in 1998 I asked him to produce an album for my group. The result was Rock of Ages, and there are songs and tracks from that album that we're still performing today. He did some outstanding work in putting together the tracks and fixing our vocal foibles and it's easily the best studio album we ever produced.

I didn't get to see Roger much in the last few years. His illness often kept him off the road, but in 2005 while performing at the Great Western Fan Festival in Fresno I ran into him again. I didn't recognize him at first. His illness and subsequent treatments had cost him his hair, and I've never seen someone whose skin was that color of gray. And yet, despite the terrible physical battles he was going through, inside it was the same old Roger and his warmth and good humor shone through. He was a superbly talented musician and an all around great guy. He will be missed by everyone, both fans and performers, in the gospel music industry he so loved.

UPDATE: If you would like to leave a note of condolence to Roger's family, leave a comment on this post and I'll forward those on to Debbie and the family.