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Archiver > ARIZARD > 2002-03 > 1016985766


From: "Vera Reeves" <>
Subject: [ARIZARD-L] Hamm
Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 10:03:10 -0700
References: <14c.aefb3ec.29cd7bb7@cs.com>


I believe a while back someone was researching the Hamm Family around Izard
County. This may be of interest to them. Vera
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Saturday, March 23, 2002
Noted area vocalist Keith Hamm dies
SHEILA BOGGESS
Baxter Bulletin Managing Editor
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Keith Hamm, a man known for his vocal talent throughout the Twin Lakes Area
and beyond, died Friday evening.
"I just keep thinking there are very few musicians that really have the
ability to affect people, reach out and really move people with their
music," said longtime friend Robert Nelson. "Keith had that ability.

"It was unbelievable the energy that went into his voice, his singing and
you knew that he believed what he sang and you could feel it in the
audience's response," Nelson said. "You knew they were being touched by what
he was singing...and we're going to miss him."

Services for Hamm, 52, will be 3 p.m. Sunday at Dunbar Auditorium on the
campus of Mountain Home High School with Dr. James Hoffpauir officiating.
Visitation will be from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Roller Funeral Home with the
family receiving friends from 6 to 8 p.m.

"My greatest joy in the music field was to glorify and lift up my Savior,"
said Hamm recently.

Hamm was choir director for the high school from 1982-1984 and served on the
Mountain Home School Board from 1996-2001.

Most recently, he served as associate pastor and minister of music at
Mountain Home Baptist Church.

"He was the greatest music director I've ever worked with -- seven good
years," said Hoffpauir, his minister and co-worker. "He was not only a good
music director but a good friend.

"He could have sold his talent and made a whole lot of money," Hoffpauir
continued. "Instead he chose to share it and give it away."

In early December, as Hamm was battling the cancer that was first diagnosed
two years ago, friends organized a benefit at Dunbar Auditorium. The
999-seat auditorium was full, and chairs were set up to accommodate an
overflow crowd.

That one man could have touched so many lives was evident by the turnout.
Bulletin Associate Editor Sonny Garrett wrote in a December column, "When
you heard him sing -- and there are few in these parts who haven't heard
Keith Hamm sing -- you got the impression he was on a first-name basis with
the Good Lord."

Garrett went on to say that Hamm's renditions of "How Great Thou Art" and
"Amazing Grace" "just go straight to the center of your heart, because
they're coming right out of the middle of his heart."

On stage at the December benefit concert, Nelson said Hamm had a big voice
and a big heart and God had given him a "supersize vessel" to hold it all,
alluding to Hamm's rotund girth.

"One way or another," Nelson said, "we're going to hear you sing again."



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