Loretta Champion

Original Member.

Loretta was born in Fayette, AL and lived in Reform, AL until she was about 5 years old.  Her family moved to Columbus, Mississippi, where she lived until she married.  As a child, she was always interested in music, both singing and playing the piano.  

She took piano lessons from the time she was in the 3rd grade until she graduated high school (East Lowndes Academy, Steens, MS).  Loretta would get in her bedroom at times and pretend that she was singing to an audience with a microphone that came with her first tape recorder. She would sing along with The Rambos, The Hinsons, The Hemphills, and a few country artists such as Tammy Wynette and Tanya Tucker and others in gospel and country music.

At the age of 13, Loretta accepted Christ as Her Savior.  She was a member of Victory Free Will Baptist Church where she played the piano for choirs, soloist, duets, trios, quartets, and was the church organist and pianist at different times.  Although she enjoyed music, she attended the Golden Triangle Vocational Technical School in Mayhew, MS and received a degree in Secretarial Science.  Loretta worked for a lawyer in Columbus, and also for a while taught piano lessons at Victory Free Will Baptist School.  

In 1987, Neal Champion asked her out for a date and as they say, history was made.  They became engaged on February 21, 1988 and were married in September of that same year.  Neal was actually the first person who was able to get Loretta to sing in front of a live audience.  She started singing with The Bama Boys (name of the group, had nothing to do with the personnel–quoted from Chris Champion) and in June before they married became the piano player for the group.  Her first weekend playing the piano they had 5 singings!

In 1994, The Bama Boys retired from singing as Chris moved to Nashville, TN, and Neal and Loretta were becoming more involved in their home church.  They were working in the music ministry as well as the youth ministry.  Although they enjoyed serving in these capacities, their hearts were always burning for being back on the road singing.

In 1996, God provided the opportunity for Neal and Loretta to be back singing in a quartet, Chosen Witness. Loretta started playing keyboard with the group and would sing a song now and then.  Neal started playing the bass guitar and singing.  As the years went by and with changes in Chosen Witness, they both just started singing as the group decided to sing with tracks and Mark Jones on the piano.

Loretta’s dream as a little girl has come true! She is singing to a live audience!

Loretta and husband, Neal, live in Alabaster, Alabama.  She sings alto and takes care of the administrative duties for the group.