Calvin Newton

Calvin Newton (October 28, 1929 – March 3, 2023) was an American gospel singer from West Frankfort, Illinois.

Youth Newton was a boy soprano who took up amateur boxing because he was tired of being bullied. Newton won a Kentucky Golden Gloves championship, retiring one opponent in just 23 seconds.

Music career In his late teens Newton was recruited to join the Blackwood Brothers, then a prominent Southern gospel quartet. From 1953 until 1956 Newton sang lead for the Oak Ridge Boys, and later he was a co-founder of the Sons of Song, one of the first pioneering acts in what would become the CCM industry.

Criminal career According to biographer Russ Cheatham, Newton was "super-handsome, athletic, and charged with sexual charisma...Audacious, Newton never turned down a dare... [hedonistic] -- reckless driving, heavy romancing, and addictive pill popping." Newton would end his estrangement from the gospel community, eventually reconciling with dozens of former colleagues and appearing in a Bill Gaither-produced gospel performance video titled All Day Singing and Dinner on the Grounds and touring with Gaither's traveling gospel music show.