Tenor: Franklin Spears
Lead: Al Koberstein
Bass: Morris “Mo” Rector
Bari: Dale Deiser
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 sang along side tenor Franklin Spears, lead Al Koberstein, and bari Dale Deiser when they placed third in Los Angeles in 1967. Although he barely made it, C.O. sang with the quartet when they won the Silver Medals in Cincinnati in 1968.
You see, C.O. was a U.S. 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 1958 champs, Gaynotes, 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 contest, qualified with the quartet, and went on to win 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 1969 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 of the guys went on to sing in other quartets or to even greater accomplishments – especially Franklin Spears, who became Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court.