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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Southern Gospel Music icon, West Virginia native, Squire Parsons died of a heart attack Monday. He was 77.

Parsons grew up in the Roane County community of Newton. He went to Spencer High School and then on to West Virginia Tech where he graduated with a degree in music in 1970.

Parsons taught school for a while at the same time beginning his ministry in Southern Gospel. He joined the West Virginia-based Calvarymen Quartet in 1969 and then became the baritone member of the Kingsmen Quartet in 1975.

Parsons left the Kingsmen in 1979 deciding to focus on a solo ministry and songwriting. He wrote and began performing his most famous song, “Sweet Beulah Land,” in the early 1980s.

He wrote more than 600 gospel songs in his decades long career.

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