Published: October 30, 2009 08:19 pm      

Cowen to sing at Park Avenue Baptist

Staff Report

MT. VERNON — A former member of the Cavaliers Quartet will perform Sunday at Park Avenue Baptist Church.

Roger Cowen, who has served over 50 years in the church ministry, will sing gospel classics and songs he has written and recorded at 6 p.m. in the church sanctuary.

Cowen, who retired from the ministry in 2006, credits Park Avenue Baptist Church with his “love affair with church music.”

“Park Avenue Church asked a skinny high school senior to lead their singing and work with their choir in the fall of 1953,” Cowen explained. “It was the beginning of a love affair with church music that has lasted all my life. The church had enough confidence in me to give me an opportunity that not many high school students get. It opened my eyes to a ministry that would lead me to serve churches in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama.”

Cowen also sang throughout the United States and several foreign countries for 34 years with the CenturyMen, a group of 100 auditioned ministers of music, according to information.

Cowen, who holds degrees in music from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., has written and recorded two CDs of his own Biblical story songs.

“Some of these Biblical songs will be on the program this coming Sunday evening,” Cowen stated. “Also, I’ve written a song in tribute to my dad, Nelson Cowen, a local insurance man, who passed away in May at the age of 98. Not many people in Mt. Vernon knew that Dad had a country string band in Pinckneyville in the late 20s and early 30s. I’ve tried to describe the Perry County Troubadours in this country ballad.”

Cowen is also a member of the Cavaliers Quartet, a group formed at Mt. Vernon High School during the 1953-54 school year. In April 2008, the group returned to the King City and sang two reunion concerts — one at Park Avenue and one at First Christian Church in West Frankfort where Cavalier member Gene Fox is pastor. On Sept. 19, 2009, they sang for the 55th class reunion of the 1954 MVTHS class. The other two quartet members, Larry Jones and Ronnie Page, are members of the 1955 class.

Cowen added Sunday’s concert was a way to give back to his home church.

“Park Avenue got me started in church music a long time ago. I just want to give something personal back to them. It’s my way of saying ‘thank you’ for having faith in me,” he said.

Cowen and his wife Betty live in the northwestern Tennessee town of Martin.