Atlanta Daily World

Joyce Bryant Picks Church For Life's Work

Joyce Bryant, 29-year old queen of the plush night club circuit, put everything on the balances in November, 1955 the glitter and glamour and riches of her $150,000-a-year singing career and the inner satisfaction of a religious life of church service.

Conservatively dressed, wearing no makeup at all, Miss Bryant had obviously forsaken her role as a seductive, "belting" type night club singer. She seemed completely natural in religious surroundings as she met the press in the spacious home of a Washington minister.

There, she told of the events that had led her to this expensive, but satisfying decision to serve the church.

"Nearly three years ago," she said earnestly, "I had a deep conviction that somehow God was speaking to me. I felt that spiritually at least, I had gotten a long way from home. But I tried and tried, and just couldn't see any way to break with the life that had been built up around me.

"I didn't find any peace until I got down on my knees and promised the Lord that if He would give me just two years to adjust all the complications of my career, I would break it off and begin to serve Him."

Lighthearted again, she got back into her routine regularly hitting all the best night clubs in North America, Europe and South America.

Eventually, she says the promise

she had made faded.

"But several months ago," she remembers, "it is two years later almost by the clock, the very same conviction came back to my heart. I was deeply depressed. It was almost as if someone had said, 'your note is due and payable'. I made up my mind to get down to business about paying that promise."