The smile of Lillie Knauls, recording artist, lights up entire concert halls, as well as the hearts of people in them. Not only has God given her a song in her heart and a beautiful belle canto three-octave-range voice to sing it, but also He has given her His anointed power. "Lillie is a natural!" Doug Oldham says. "I became a Lillie fan from the first moment I met her and heard her sing. What an experience!" Lillie will never forget that first meeting with Doug Oldham either. "Paul Ferrin, the composer-arranger who is minister of music at Bethel Church, San Jose, was giving the Bay Area premier of Alleluia," Lillie says. "He invited me to come and sing God Gave the Song and to sing a duet with Doug Oldham as well. We'd never met before. Following the program Doug said, 'Boy, you are something! I'm going to tell my friends Bill Gaither and Bob Mac Kenzie about you!' And he did." After her first album premiered at the Christian Booksellers Convention, Lillie presented it to Gaither. He recalled that Doug Oldham had spoken to him about Lillie. Then, as Lillie tells it, "all kinds of good things began to jell." Gaither returned home, listened to Lillie's album and called her with the exciting news that the Gaither's were starting a record company and, if possible, he'd like to have her as one of their first artists! And now she is a part of the Homecoming Friends Videos and LOVES it. Ms. Lillie says, "I did not grow up listening to Southern Gospel Music, so my lips may not always move as quickly on some songs... however, on the ones I know I really DO get into them. I am so honored to be a part of all this."
From the article: Lillie Flies High, Christian Life, February 1980, pgs. 24-25, 54, 56.