Her service to the Spartanburg community spans more than 25 years. She has served as Music Minister to many churches throughout the Spartanburg area. That's why we are proud to recognize Rev. Brenda Nichols as one of our 2008 Upstate Black History Makers.

Reverend Brenda Stripling Nichols organized and directed the Spartanburg Area Youth Mass Choir, the Spartanburg County Baptist Association Mass Choir and the Spartanburg City Inter-Denominational Mass Choir. She organized the Spartanburg Area Community Choir and opened a Christian Music School in the Spartanburg community where she trains children and young people to become church musicians, singers and directors.

Brenda has served as the director of the Children's Choir for the South Carolina Baptist Congress of Christian Education. She conducts music workshops around the state, as well as teaching, preaching and singing God's Word when and wherever she is called. Brenda has also served for over eight years on the faculty of the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education as Music Instructor for the Youth Division.

In 2003, Brenda spearheaded a back to school festival, gathering school supplies for students, providing helpful information for parents, and needed health screenings. During the Katrina tragedy, Brenda reached out to the Katrina victims by coordinating efforts to gather supplies that were taken to Louisiana.

Brenda was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. She received her Bachelor's degree in Music Education from Knoxville College in 1970. She has completed additional graduate studies in Counseling and Management at the Universities of Tennessee and Virginia. She has studied at the Gardner-Webb School of Divinity in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. Brenda and her husband, John, have been married for 35 years and are the proud parents of three sons, four grandchildren and two lovely daughters-in-law.

For her gift of song throughout the community, 107.3 JAMZ is proud to salute Rev. Brenda Nichols as a 2008 Upstate Black History Maker.