Brother Claude Ely
Musician · 1922–1978 · Pucketts Creek, Virginia
Best known for
Songwriter
Brother Claude Ely was a Kentucky Pentecostal-Holiness preacher and gospel singer whose 1953 recording of “There Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down” — written from his own childhood prayer for healing — became a Southern-gospel standard and was revived for a 2010 Johnny Cash posthumous release.
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- Born Claude Ely on July 22, 1922, in Pucketts Creek, Lee County, Virginia.
- Was healed of tuberculosis as a teenager, an event he credited to prayer; began preaching at sixteen.
- Wrote “There Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down” in 1934 at age twelve while praying through his illness.
- Recorded the song for King Records in 1953.
- Johnny Cash recorded the song for his second posthumous album American VI: Ain't No Grave in 2010.
- Died May 7, 1978, while preaching at his Charity Tabernacle in Newport, Kentucky.