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Founder of premier Christian music label dies

Nov. 9, 2007

By Kelli Boesel
Reporter

Word Records Inc. founder and Baylor alumnus Jarrell McCracken died Wednesday night in Waco.

In 1950 McCracken graduated from Baylor, then in choosing to continue his education, he also received his Master's degree from Baylor in 1953.

Soon after, McCracken worked as a sportscaster at KWTX, when he created a novelty record that depicted salvation as a football game, called "The Game of Life," said Robert Darden, associate professor of journalism.

The record was a major hit and copies can still be found today.

But possibly what McCracken was most known for was his presence during the emergence of contemporary Christian music.

"Whatever people think of Christian music today is owed largely to Jarrell McCracken," Darden said.

McCracken started Word Records in 1951, and the company remained in Waco until McCracken's resignation in 1986.

Darden said Word Records influenced the revival of young people at the time.

It was the first record label to release youth musicals and Darden said Baptist kids just flocked to them.

"(McCracken) realized what young people in the church wanted to listen to," Darden said.

Word Records became the world's largest religious record label.

"Seventy percent of all Christian music, at one time, came out of Waco," he said.

McCracken was a visionary, said Lois Ferguson, Baylor facilities utilization planner and assistant to the office of the provost. Ferguson worked as McCracken's assistant at Word for seven years.

"He was able to see things that could be," Ferguson said. "That you and I couldn't even imagine."

He also could persuade people to make things happen, she said.

"He had a great gift and he really changed the Christian music industry," Ferguson said.

Ferguson said McCracken never intended to be a businessman, but he backed into it.

Even after Word became a major corporation, McCracken never forgot Baylor. She said he, with Word, financed a vocal scholarship at Baylor for several years in the '70s and hired a lot of Baylor graduates.

"His first recording artist was a Baylor student," Ferguson said.

Word was different from other Christian recording companies because it did not focus on one genre of Christian music.

Currently, Word Records boasts artists such as Building 429, Mark Schultz, Diamond Rio and Randy Travis.

"Word basically created an umbrella, or space, where contemporary Christian music was able to flourish," said Randall Bradley, director of the Center for Christian Music Studies.

Word Records also put Waco on the map.

"In the '70s and '80s lots of people knew about Waco because Waco was on everything that Word put out," Bradley said.

However, Word didn't only focus on music. Beginning in the 1960s, Word Books published a lot of Christian authors, such as Rev. Billy Graham and James Dobson, producer of "Focus on the Family."

"The book-publishing arm of Word was huge," Bradley said.

McCracken sold Word records to American Broadcasting Corporation in 1977 but remained president of the label until 1986.

McCracken also remained active in Seventh and James Baptist Church throughout his life in Waco and later founded Brentwood Farms, which was home to some of the most valuable Arabian horses in the world.

"Whenever he became his wealthiest, he remained a humble, gracious man," Darden said. "I admired him a lot, as do many people still do to this day."

The record labels created by Word Inc. still exist today, and the remnant of Word Records is located in Nashville, Tenn.

McCracken's funeral will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Seventh and James Baptist Church.

He is survived by his wife, Judy Murray McCracken, and two children.

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