c. 2000 Religion News Service

ATHENS, Ala. _ Debbie White was ecstatic as she walked out of the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville after performing in front of a crowd of several thousand people and millions of television viewers for the Christian Country Music Association’s annual Awards Show in November.

Out of the view of the cameras, lights and fans, however, she lost her composure. “I wasn’t that nervous when I was on stage, but it hit me after I finished singing and left the auditorium,” said White. “I just fell apart.”

A year before, while on a visit to Nashville, White pointed out the famous auditorium to her two children. She told them she would perform there one day. They laughed.

However, White is now getting the last laugh. The Huntsville, Ala., native is on the threshold of stardom as one of the nation’s top country gospel singers.

She was recently named the 1999 “Female Vocalist of the Year,” by both the Country Gospel Music Association and the Country Gospel Music Guild. She was named “New Artist of the Year” in 1997 by the Country Gospel Music Association.

She has recorded two albums, including her latest, “Heaven’s Country.” One of the singles from her new project, “Practice What You Preach,” was No. 1 on the gospel music industry’s International Chart and two National Christian Country charts. Her latest single, “Going Through Some Memories,” was No. 1 for four straight weeks.

Performing on stage is nothing new to White, who was raised in a Christian home and sang as a 14-year-old with her relatives, The White Family, at gospel singings throughout north Alabama. But the teen-ager soon decided life in the fast lane was more exciting than singing hymns in church.

While in high school in the late 1970s, White became involved with drugs and alcohol. Her life became one big party and she dropped out of school. She worked at the Plush Horse, then a popular Huntsville nightclub. She became pregnant, but had an abortion. She sank deeper and deeper into a life that would eventually find her facing the end of a cocked gun held by a former boyfriend. He put the gun down when she agreed to go back to him.

White said she believes the prayers of her mother saved her.

Her mother called to check on her shortly after the gun incident and said she felt something was wrong.

“I didn’t tell her what happened, but I knew she was praying for me,” White said.

Despite the prayers, White didn’t get any better grip on her life. She married, but was divorced about a year later. In 1984, she was reunited with her high school sweetheart, Bill Cawthon, and they married five days after he returned from the Navy, where he was stationed in San Diego. Since he had a job there, they moved to California where they became deeply enmeshed in the drug and alcohol culture. Cocaine parties with loud music was the norm at their house, she said.

It wasn’t the lifestyle, though, which drove them back to Huntsville. After experiencing a number of small earthquakes while in California for six months, it was making a nervous wreck out of White. “I was terrified living out there with all those tremors,” she said.

They returned to Huntsville where they continued their life of drugs and alcohol. Their children, Dustin and Amber, who were born in 1986 and 1987, respectively, would be confined to their rooms while their parents were high on drugs.

White’s mother, Doris White, kept inviting her daughter and son-in-law to gospel concerts to hear the family perform. They finally agreed to attend a homecoming service at the family’s home church, the Gurley Church of God, one Saturday night in October 1989.

The following Wednesday, while sitting together on their couch smoking marijuana, Bill Cawthon excused himself and went to the bedroom. When he returned, Debbie noticed he had tears in his eyes. He told her, “Debbie, I just gave my heart to the Lord.”

She didn’t take it well.

“I was mad,” she said. “I told him to leave me alone. I also told my mama to stop praying for me and that she was making me miserable.”

But the following weekend, they attended another White Family concert. This time it was Debbie who found God.

“I saw my younger sister, Sherry, singing with the family,” said White. “I saw how pure she was and I knew how dirty I was. It shouldn’t be that way. As the older sister, I was supposed to be the role model. I received the Lord that night and was instantly healed from my addictions. I’ve never wanted another joint.”

It was an instant change in the Cawthon household.

“It was much calmer,” said 13-year-old Dustin. “There was always a lot of noise and parties. We’re much closer as a family.”

Dustin and 12-year-old sister Amber are home-schooled by their parents so the family can travel together to performances.

“It’s really cool,” Amber said about their lifestyle. “I have a lot of friends around the country and I like traveling and helping out.”

A couple of months after their conversion experience, Debbie and Bill joined The White Family, which included her mother, her father, Thomas, her sister and brother-in-law, Sherry and Kevin Bozarth, her brothers, Darold and Ronnie, and Ronnie’s wife, Robin.

They performed with the White Family for seven years until Debbie decided to start her own ministry in 1997, much to the chagrin of her husband.

“When she first decided to go solo, I was upset because I enjoyed being on stage,” said Cawthon, who played bass guitar with the group. “It was hard to give up, but now I really enjoy doing her sound equipment. Some people call me Mr. White, but I’m used to it. I’m very proud of what Debbie is doing and I feel God has really blessed her.”

While many people try to hide their past, White believes sharing it with others will offer them hope.

“If God can do this for me, he can do it for anyone,” she said.

DEA END WHITE