Song Story: Lead Me, Guide Me

Lead Me,Guide Me was written by Doris Akers.

Doris Mae Akers was born on May 21, 1923 in Brookfield, Missouri. She was one of ten children born to Floyd and Pearl Akers.

In the 1930s, she and some of her siblings had a group known as “Dot and The Swingsters”.

Doris Akers

In 1948, she formed the Simmons-Akers trio with Dorothy Simmons and Hattie Hawkins.

In 1958, she co-wrote “Lord, Don’t Move the Mountain” with Mahalia Jackson.

In the 1960s and 1970s, she directed the Sky Pilot Choir in Los Angeles.

She continued recording and performing and became known as Miss Gospel Music.

In the 1990s, she served as minister of music at a church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In 1992, Akers was honored by the Smithsonian Institution as “the foremost black gospel songwriter in the United States”.

Doris Akers died on July 26, 1995 in Minnesota.

In 2001, she was inducted posthumously into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and in 2011 into the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

She wrote many compositions including I Cannot Fail the Lord, You Can’t Beat God Giving and Sweet, Sweet Spirit.

Lead Me,Guide Me was first published in 1953.

Elvis Presley recorded Lead Me, Guide Me in the 1970s.

The song represents the desire to find the path God wants us to walk.