Garry Polston reflects on a life of ministry following final concert with The Noblemen

By John Herndon, KentuckySings.com

NEW CASTLE, Ky. – Garry Polston leaned back in his recliner and smiled.

Not that it was unexpected. If you know anything about Garry Polston, you know he smiles. Smiles a lot. He’s happy. 

It seems like he’s always happy. And even though he’s now retired from doing what he loves and has always wanted to do – singing gospel music – he’s overflowing with the joy he has sung about for over 60 years.

After almost 10 years of singing with The Noblemen, Polston’s final concert was on Dec. 17 at Christiansburg Baptist Church, located near Bagdad, Ky. The Noblemen joined Allison Speer for a day of praise. It was a fitting way for Polston to step away from what he’s been doing since he was 8 years old.

“It was wonderful,” Polston said with a huge smile. “They loved on me and made me feel like a million dollars. Allison Speer sang up a storm and she had us sing with her.”

It was vintage Garry Polston: Put the focus on someone else even when he is the person of honor. 

And it might be the one defining trait that has made him one of Kentucky’s most beloved figures in gospel music.

Oh, Polston can belt out the notes, whether singing lead, as he did early in his career, or delivering the music as a baritone, as he has with The Noblemen since his voice mellowed to a lower tone over the years. He’s written a few songs – “I’m guessing around 30 or so,” he says – and can skillfully send his fingers across a keyboard. 

With The Noblemen, he even took up a mandolin for a song or two. And in 2022, he was inducted into the Kentucky Gospel Singing Convention Hall of Fame.

But with Garry Polston, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ is paramount. It always has been, always will be.

And to be able to do so through song was his dream growing up around Jabez, Ky., in Russell County. 

“I could run over behind the barn and fish and swim (in Lake Cumberland),” he remembers. “Farming was a wonderful life, but I wanted to sing. I daydreamed about being in a quartet and singing. When I was eight years old, my mom and dad and my twin brother, Larry, sang in a quartet, ‘The Polston Family.’

“When I was in high school and people’s minds started to wander, they would start doodling. I don’t know what others were drawing, but I drew a stage and a microphone and a piano.”

The dream grew when Polston, all of 18 years old and recently graduated from Nancy High School, began singing lead for The Servants, a popular quartet that was based in Campbellsville.

“We opened for The Oak Ridge Boys a lot,” Polston smiles. “At that time, they were Willie Wynn, Duane Allen, Noel Fox and Bill Golden. He went by Bill in those days. Tommy Fairchild played the piano for them. We opened for The Downings, The Speer Family and several others.

“I love that song, ‘I Know’ that the Oak Ridge Boys sang. J.D. Sumner & the Stamps and The Oak Ridge Boys were my favorites.”

Those groups were considered cutting edge in the late ‘60s and early 70’s with The Stamps gaining widespread fame as part of Elvis Presley’s entourage. 

“Back then it was largely the voices and a piano,” Polson explains, “Finally people started adding a bass guitar and other instruments. We had a full band with The Servants but one place we went, they told us we couldn’t have drums in the church, so we left.”

During his time with The Noblemen, the quartet largely sang with prerecorded tracks. “I remember when groups first started doing that, some people didn’t like that, but (artists) couldn’t afford a full band.”

It was during that time with The Servants that Polston met his wife of 51 years, Lula.

“I didn’t like him at all,” she laughs about that first meeting.

“She thought I was stuck up,” Polston explained with a chuckle. “She was into gospel music and came to see The Servants in Glasgow. I sang, but I was sick and went to the bus instead of going to the product table.”

Eventually, however, they began to date. “I didn’t have a car, but she had a ‘69 Mustang convertible, so she did the driving,” he laughs. “I remember on our first date, we went to the Taylor County Park in Campbellsville.”

In time, Garry and Lula would have their own family singing group, but before that, came to fruition, Garry answered a call to preach, a call he’s still answering with Grub Ridge Community Church in Henry County. The church meets twice a month and Polston will continue to preach as long as he is able.

Throughout his pastorates, though, Polston has continued to live his dream of singing the gospel. He left The Servants because of his call to preach but later surfaced with The Brotherhood Quartet in the 1980s. While serving as a pastor in Henderson, Ky., in the 90s, Garry formed a trio, Koinonia, that included his wife and another friend from the area. 

“I have sung in 20 states from Florida to Michigan and from Iowa to Delaware,” Polston says. “Draw a circle from those states and it is 20 states. I have sung in all of them.”

And it was through gospel music that Polston earned the nickname, “The Roundman,” because of his rotund physique. “That’s been my nickname for years,” Polston laughs. “There were people in Virginia who didn’t know my name. They just knew me as ‘The Roundman.’”

He had become a regional gospel celebrity but as his two daughters were growing up, Polston saw they were blessed with the ability to sing, so The Garry Polston Family began singing in churches throughout Kentucky and surrounding states. 

Garry first called on his daughters, Laura and Sarah, to sing publicly in the 80’s, when they were 9 and 4, but it wasn’t until 1997 when the family began a 16-year run of singing and recording. The group’s final concert came on New Year’s Eve, 2013.

“I grew up wanting to be just like my daddy and travel and sing,” says Polston’s oldest daughter, Laura Smoyer. “Anytime we were out of school for summer or on weekends close to home, I was on the bus watching and learning everything I could from daddy. I grew up on the bus. I am so thankful for him as he taught me about Jesus and gospel music. He is my personal hero!”

Eventually, his daughters ventured into their own careers and moved away, prompting some changes, including the addition of veteran bass singer David Martin.

“One day, I told David, ‘I have run out of Polstons,” Garry remembers. From that observation, The Noblemen, with whom Martin had previously sung, were reborn the same night the Garry Polston Family retired from touring. In 2019, the group was honored as the best quartet singing in the annual Kentucky Farm Bureau Gospel Music Showcase at the Kentucky State Fair.

The group became increasingly popular in Kentucky and surrounding states and recorded several albums, including one devoted to songs written by Garry Polston. 

But Polston says his favorite Noblemen song in recent years has been a cover of The Perrys’ “If You Knew Him,” written by southern gospel giants Joseph Habedank and Rodney Griffin. “That one is powerful,” he says. 

In recent years, however, health issues have slowed the Russell County native who simply dreamed of singing gospel music. “I am diabetic and have trouble getting around,” says Polston, who is 71. 

For several years, Polston has brought a stool along for concerts, opting to sit for much of the time on stage. “I didn’t like not being able to stand up,” he says. “The other guys said it was OK, but I wanted to be able to stand up. Several months ago, I started having some trouble. It got to where I couldn’t get off the bus.”

Jay Boyd, of Elizabethtown, who has filled in for Polston several times, will be taking his place in the quartet’s lineup.

He made the difficult decision to step away from what he loves, but you can be sure that Garry Polston will be praising God for His blessings. He’ll continue to preach at Grub Ridge but will also be heavily involved with mission work in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kenya.

What began as some online devotions in 2017 grew to helping start a Christian school in Pakistan in 2018. “The school started in 2018 with 15 students. Now there are two schools and 300 students. In Bangladesh and Kenya, they are having revivals. We have had 33 churches start so far. Last year, I was able to preach in eight countries over the internet.”

Polston says the schools cost about $1,000 per month but he has generous support from some churches and Facebook friends. He says the churches are non-denominational and meet outside. They are able to use some factories for gatherings if the weather does not cooperate. 

And he says the stories of commitment to the Lord’s work are amazing. “One preacher in Kenya was stoned. He was hurt pretty bad, but when he healed, he went back to preach again,” Polston says.

Garry Polston says he has seen God’s favor. He’s been singing for 63 years and pastoring for 37. And the people Garry Polston has touched are beyond counting.

“‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness’ is my all-time favorite hymn,” Polston says with another huge smile.

Looking back at his life of ministry, it’s easy to see why.