Youngstown native and gospel music innovator dies at 74 in Cleveland

YOUNGSTOWN — Delores Ware-Spires, the Youngstown native who advanced gospel music throughout Northeast Ohio and beyond, died Sunday in Cleveland after a long illness. She was 74.

Ware-Spires is best known for developing the Spires Method, a system for teaching people who cannot read music to play gospel music on a piano in six weeks. She recorded her methods on instructional tapes and earned a copyright for her system.

Ware-Spires, who lived in Cleveland in her adult life, created the Spires Method in 1971. It earned her a nomination for induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.

“A lot of musicians took her course way back when,” said Willetta Milan of Cleveland, Ware-Spires’ oldest daughter.

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