Radio personality, widow of Stuart Hamblen, dies at 101

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA (ANS) -- Veeva Ellen "Suzy" Daniels Hamblen, an entertainer, gospel singer and Rose Parade mainstay, died of congestive heart failure June 2 at her Santa Clarita home. She was 101.

Born in Gage, Oklahoma, in 1907, Daniels and her family headed to Los Angeles in her late teenage years. She got a job as a secretary at a radio station, where she met Stuart Hamblen, who hosted "Stuart Hamblen's Covered Wagon Jubilee."

According to Nathan McIntire, Staff Writer for the Whittier Daily News, when a performer didn't show up one day, Hamblen improvised, introducing Daniels as Miss Suzy Ashenfella, the sister of the missing character. She sang an unrehearsed song and after became a regular, adopting the moniker "My Suzy."

The two were married in 1933 and remained together until Stuart Hamblen died in 1989.

McIntire says the Hamblens met the Rev. Billy Graham when he was a guest on Hamblen's radio show. They remained lifelong friends, and Graham conducted Stuart Hamblen's memorial service.

"Suzy Hamblen was one of the most outstanding Christian women of her time. Her influence extended far beyond Stuart. She helped with so many great songs he wrote, and together they reared a wonderful family," Dr. Graham wrote in a statement.

The Hamblens kept a ranch in Arcadia for many years and were known as some of the leading trainers at Santa Anita Race Track in the late 1940s, McIntire writes.

McIntire says that Stuart Hamblen became the first person to send a horse airborne, when he had a plane customized to fly El Lobo, a winner of the Santa Anita Handicap, to Burlingame for a race. Years later, when El Lobo died, the Hamblens buried him on their ranch at a site that has since been paved over and is now covered by the 210 Freeway.

From 1979 to 1989, the Hamblens rode their Peruvian Paso horses in the Rose Parade. Veeva continued to ride in the parade for several years after Stuart died.

In addition to his career as an entertainer, during which he wrote the songs It Is No Secret and He Bought My Soul at Calvary, Stuart Hamblen got involved in politics at the peak of his popularity and ran for president as a member of the Prohibition Party in 1952.

McIntire says Veeva Hamblen maintained her fame as a writer and singer of a number of gospel songs, including appearances on the Bill Gaither Homecoming Gospel Albums. She served as the CEO of the family music publishing company, Hamblen Music Co., until shortly before her death.

Judy Whisenant, a family friend, said Hamblen accepted many people into her family over the years, related or not. Whisenant proudly called herself an "honorary aunt" to Veeva's kids and grandkids and said she would introduce her as a "daughter by choice."

Hamblen is survived by daughters Veeva Suzanne Presnell and Lisa Obee Jaserie and seven grandchildren.

A memorial service is scheduled at 3 p.m. Wednesday (June 10) at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park and Mortuary in Los Angeles.

** Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent of ANS, is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station. Michael's involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- Michael Ireland Media Missionary (MIMM) -- of ACT International at: Artists in Christian Testimony (ACT) International.