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P19
December 2013
C
atherine Herron
awoke in
2006 in the darkness of her
Mississippi home.
She felt the voice of God encouraging her to write a
gospel song. Another night, Herron said, God urged
her to write a book about faith.
The experiences led Herron, a Grand Canyon
University online graduate student, to publish “Not
Your Journey but Your Destiny” and to release her
first gospel CD, “God Never Fails,” earlier this year.
While she grew up singing in her family churches and
developed her soulful gospel voice as a child through
youth music programs in her native Chicago, Herron
wondered if God had the right writer in mind.
“’Oh Lord, you’ve made a mistake,’” Herron recalled
thinking. “’I don’t know anything about writing a
book.’ But God wouldn’t let me go to sleep and He
was very persistent.”
Chicago is known for its roots in music stemming
from the Great Migration, the period after the
turn of the 20th century when African-Americans
brought the music of blues and jazz from the South
to northern industrial cities where they hoped to
find work. After Herron married, she moved her
family to Mississippi to care for her grandparents
– bringing her love of gospel to the South.
Herron, a mother of two who works as an
administrative assistant for the Hattiesburg
Public School District, said GCU’s online program
through the Ken Blanchard College of Business
provided her the chance to maintain her interests
while working toward a master’s in business
administration with an emphasis in leadership.
“Whatever road God leads me on, I want to be
successful,” Herron said. “GCU has helped me do
this without a lot of stress and making the online
atmosphere open and friendly.”
Herron said her book is a biographical portrayal of
her late mother and spiritual lessons learned from
her sudden death.
Avienell La Vern Armstrong-
Patterson
was 27 when she died in the arms of a
pastor from an apparent heart attack.
“I think that’s what has just carried on in my life,
along with my mother’s heart for singing,” she said.
“It’s in my blood to sing.”
Herron and her husband, the
Rev. Robert Herron
,
opened a church in the den of their home nine years
ago. The congregation developed into what is now
the New Fellowship Baptist Church in Hattiesburg.
Despite working at the University of Southern
Mississippi for 12 years and serving seven years
in Mississippi public schools as an administrative
assistant, Herron said she focused on an MBA over
an education degree. The affable singer-songwriter
felt her degree would help her reach others through
Christian media.
Chris Rock
, a GCU online enrollment counselor, said
he wondered about how Herron’s busy schedule
with church and gospel choirs might impact her
studies. But she emerged as a top student.
“She’s that model student, not just in the classroom,
but in her community, too,” said Rock, adding that
Herron helped her Hattiesburg neighbors recover
from a February tornado that leveled parts of the city.
Herron, too, knows about skepticism. But she heard
the call from God and is looking forward to using her
degree to spread the Good News.
■
A HERITAGE of
Music
Chicago-born grad student has roots in gospel
– by Rachelle Reeves
Catherine Herron says late-night messages from
God led her to publish her first book and record her
first gospel CD. Photo by Kara Davidson/Special to
GCU Today Magazine
‘GOD NEVER FAILS’
Catherine Herron’s CD is available
on iTunes, Amazon.com and eMusic.
Her book, “Not Your Journey but Your
Destiny,” is available on Amazon.com,
Barnesandnoble.com and Xlibris.com.
online