James Walker; Lead Singer in Famed Gospel Group

James Walker, 66, a lead singer with the Dixie Hummingbirds, one of gospel music’s preeminent vocal groups. He joined the Dixie Hummingbirds in 1954 and wrote some of their greatest hits, including “Take Care of Me” and “New Jerusalem.” The Dixie Hummingbirds backed Paul Simon in the 1973 hit “Love Me Like a Rock,” and influenced a host of other groups, including the Temptations and the Zion Harmonizers of New Orleans. The group was founded by James Davis in 1928 in Greenville, S.C., and moved to Philadelphia in the 1940s. In Philadelphia on Oct. 30 of undisclosed causes.