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32nd Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards - Arrivals

Source: Earl Gibson III / Getty

We are sad to report that singer and worship leader Sheila Wilson, mother of Stellar Award-nominated gospel artist Bryan Andrew Wilson, passed away at age 65.

An official press release confirmed that Wilson made her transition on November 9, 2022, at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital. She was battling stage 4 cancer when she went into cardiac arrest.

Known as “Mama Sheila,” she was born on May 25, 1957, in Danville, IL to Tommy and Clair Bell Davis, both singers. As a teen, Sheila began directing church choirs and, in the 1980s, became a singer with the R&B group W.Q.B.C. The group released one album, 1985’s Wanna Quit But Can’t, which included the Top 10 radio hit, “Love Me Anyway.”

Mama Sheila would switch to management when her then-10-year-old son Bryan landed a recording contract and scored radio hits in the 1990s. She would eventually become an ordained minister and worked on music with her son. Their duet, “Secret Place,” was featured on Bryan’s 2007 album, A Second Coming, and was a hit on gospel radio. It was later reissued on bestselling compilations such as Shanachie Records’ A Praise and Worship Celebration in 2007 and Time Life Music’s Encouraged: Today’s Greatest Gospel Anthems in 2011.

In 2017, Mama Sheila released her own single, “Just Fine” on her son’s label, Bryan’s Songs Records.

Mama Sheila is survived by her three sons, Aaron, Bryan, and Chris (who is known as Official Apxllo on the urban music scene). She is also survived by “daughters-in-love” Tiffany Morriar Wilson and Amy Vogel, several grandchildren, and extended family. Contributions may be sent to $freedombaw and resolutions to freedomhubatl@gmail.com

We send our love and condolences to Mama Sheila’s family, friends, and all others that she has touched.