Mark IV
1969
(retired)
Winning Members:
Tenor: Franklin Spears
Lead: Al Koberstein
Bass: Morris Rector
Bari: Dale Deiser
Replacement Members:
Bass: C.O. Crawford
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Luck and the US Government - combined, of course, with the well-known Rector talent - won Morris "Mo" Rector his second International gold quartet medal in 1969. San Antonio's Mark IV was the champion that year, and C.O. Crawford had been the bass of the quartet from its beginning. He was with tenor Franklin Spears, lead Al Koberstein, and bari Dale Deiser when they placed third in Los Angeles in 1967, and again - although he barely made it - when the quartet won the silver in Cincinnati in '68.
But C.O. was a State Department employee, subject to being sent on short notice to the Mideast or some other trouble spot for a few weeks or a few years. Mo, who had won his first medal with the Gaynotes in 1958, usually filled in for C.O. on shows while he was gone.
In 1968 C.O. made it back from Jordan just one day before the Southwestern District prelims, qualified with the quartet and won a silver medal in Cincinnati. A week later Uncle Sam called again. The message this time: two years in Morocco.
So Mo was the bass at the '69 prelims and again when the Mark IV won the championship in St. Louis in July. C.O. later returned, Mo left, and the quartet filled engagements for several years before disbanding.
Most went on to other quartets or to even greater accomplishments - especially Franklin Spears, who became a justice of the Texas Supreme Court.
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