Jarrell McCracken, founder of Christian music company Word Inc., now known as Word Entertainment, died Nov. 7 in Waco, Texas, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, The Waco Tribune Herald reported. He was 79.

In 1951, McCracken launched Word in Waco, growing it into one of the world's largest Christian media companies. The businessman's vision for Word, now a Warner/Curb company based in Nashville, created the foundation for what would become one of the fastest-growing genres in the music industry, Word Entertainment officials said.

Word Records and its subsidiary labels featured such artists as Amy Grant, Sandi Patty and George Beverly Shea as well as composers Kurt Kaiser and Ralph Carmichael.

Piers Bateman, who worked for McCracken at Word for more than 20 years, including as vice president of administration and marketing for the publishing division, told the Tribune Herald that McCracken was a true pioneer.

"I think it's fair to say that McCracken basically created an industry," Bateman said. "The gospel music, the religious music industry, did not exist before him and the religious publishing of books was a very small aspect of publishing before he got involved in it. He was always out front, maybe a little further out in front of the industry than it wanted him to be, which is not uncommon of entrepreneurial, visionary people."

In 1974, ABC bought out McCracken's share of the company, but he remained as president until 1986 when he resigned amid differences of opinion regarding management style and direction, the Tribune Herald reported.

Word Entertainment is comprised of a label group, music publishing, distribution and church resource divisions. McCracken's funeral was scheduled for last Saturday at Seventh & James Baptist Church in Waco.

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