Royal 'Mickey' Warren, longtime South Side gospel organist who played for Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., dead at 76

Since the 1960s, Royal "Mickey" Warren's music has been the soundtrack to the lives of many churchgoers on the South Side.

Mr. Warren started as an organist at Fuller Park's Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church as a youth and became a cornerstone at many other churches on the South Side, eventually recording 37 albums and playing for the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. He died July 16 at age 76.

From a young age, Mr. Warren was drawn to music. He asked his mother for a piano around the age of 10, and he used to mock play the keyboard on the windowsill of the family home, according to his sister Helen Warren.

The middle child with two sisters, Mr. Warren lived in Bronzeville and Auburn Gresham throughout his childhood. The family had been going to Fuller Park Fellowship since 1954, just four years after its founding. The ministers and founders noticed Mr. Warren's affinity for music, and he began playing organ with the choir in his teens. He largely played by ear but was also skilled at reading music.

Lou Della Evans Reid, who helped start the church and became its minister of music, played alongside Mr. Warren for decades.

"Music seems to attract mostly anybody, and we as a Black church with gospel music, it's a part of us," Reid said. "That is a part of Mickey's life."

Reid's brother, the Rev. Clay Evans, grew close with Mr. Warren and appreciated his ability to add to the religious experience with his music, Reid said.

The tie between the Civil Rights Movement and music was strong in the 1960s and 1970s, and Mr. Warren grew close with Jackson, whose activism was a bedrock in Chicago's push for equal rights. Jackson became something of a mentor to Mr. Warren, and he got more involved in Rainbow PUSH and Operation Breadbasket, becoming the organist for Operation Breadbasket in 1970.

"It meant the world to him. He was very, very honored to know him, to have a relationship with him, to walk beside him," Mr. Warren's son, Warren Fairley, said of Jackson.

"He would tell us stories about how he was a part of that process and how music would get people through their struggles and through their hard times during the Civil Rights Movement."

Mr. Warren's popularity continued to rise, and he performed with musicians Billy Preston, James Cleveland, and the group Earth Wind and Fire.

Known affectionately as the "preacher's musician" and "holy Roy," Mr. Warren worked as a catering supervisor for Sky Chef with American Airlines. He retired in 2001. He was also drafted into the U.S. Army and served two years in Vietnam.

Another priority for Mr. Warren was his family. He often took his six children on the road with him for performances, traveling across the country to places including New Orleans, California, New York and Detroit.

"He was a really great family man, and he touched a lot of people with his music," Fairley said.

Mr. Warren brought some parental energy to the church, too. He served as a mentor to younger musicians, often moving aside so the younger pianists and organists could try playing for an audience, Helen Warren said.

"He was always offering constructive criticism. He believed in helping and encouraging," Helen Warren said. "He was a giver, I think, that's what I'd call him."

Funeral services have been held.