Pat G’Orge-Walker has led a colorful life professionally, to say the least. She is a former music industry veteran who has worked for several major labels including Epic, Def Jam and Columbia. She cut her chops as a singer by performing with the legendary 60s girl group, Arlene Smith and the Chantels (“Maybe”) as well as with the gospel groups The Spiritualettes and The Heavenly Two. And she has written as well as acted in stage presentations.
In the 1970s G’Orge-Walker began penning short stories featuring a main character that has an intimate and impacting encounter with God Almighty on the telephone, the now infamous Sister Betty. But it wasn’t until 1997 that she actually self-published the first in a series of books and that book – Sister Betty God is Calling! – is now being sold on Amazon.com as a collector’s item.
“The fact that there has never been anything like my gospel comedy stories never crossed my mind until I was presented with the BWA 2000 Golden Pen Award for creating a new genre in fiction—gospel comedy.”
God called Sister Betty once more in 2003 and G’Orge-Walker released Sister Betty God’s Calling You, Again! (Kensington Books) thus marking another first for both the author and the publishing house that launched an inspirational department, a result of signing G’Orge-Walker. And G’Orge-Walker was thrust onto the scene in a rocket as a much sought after and highly acclaimed speaker and stand up comedian with her one-woman shows.
Kensington followed its endorsement of G’Orge-Walker with the commission of another novel featuring Sister Betty, “Mother Eternal Ann Everlastin’ is Dead,” which was released in 2004. If the author pushed the envelope with Sister Betty God’s Calling Again! then she mailed the letter with Mother Eternal Ann Everlastin’ is Dead.
“Some people thought I went too far in exposing some of the spiritual flaws of the church by giving the characters names such as a Sister Ima Hellraiser or Bishop Was Nevercalled. Unfortunately, these characters exist and any resemblance to these characters, whether dead or alive, is a doggone shame.”
The characters still exist and G’Orge-Walker continues to pull from a seemingly inexhaustible pool of material to create more novels and build her comedy routine. In between the laughs, Pat G’Orge-Walker the wife, mother and church deaconess is deadly serious about serving God. Some consider comedy to be entertainment first but not G’Orge-Walker who views it as ministry first.
“Promoting books and performing comedy are very arduous tasks particularly when you are trying to expose the church to a new method of bringing people to Christ. No matter how funny my routines or stories may be there will always be a message of God’s love and redemption.”
