AMERICA and the world, black people and all people, today mourn the passing of Mahalia Jackson. She was a noble woman, an artist without peer, a magnetic ambassador of goodwill for the United States in other lands, an exemplary servant of her God. All her years she poured out her soul in song and her heart in service to her people. Millions of ears will miss the sound of that great rich voice "making a joyful noise unto the Lord," as she liked to call her work--yet her life story itself sings the Gospel message of freedom, and will not cease to do so.
Note: Mahalia Jackson, 60, died after a prolonged illness at the Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park outside of Chicago, Ill.
Sammy Davis, Jr., represented the President at the funeral in Chicago on February 1, 1972
Richard Nixon, Statement on the Death of Mahalia Jackson. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/254781