I want you to know about John Rainbow

I met John Rainbow when my husband and I moved to NYC for the first time in the summer of 1998. We remained friends until his death in 2015. His career as a musician and his important role at the Manhattan Church of Christ are described in his obituary:

John came to New York City in the early 1950’s. He sang at many well-known venues such as the Cotton Club, Birdland, the Apollo Theater, Danny’s Skylight Room, Small’s Paradise, Lennox Lounge, The Countee Cullen Theater, and the Iridium Jazz club. John traveled to Sweden and found success as a Jazz vocalist singing with Harry Arnold’s Big Band, headlining in major clubs, resorts and radio shows.  

Back in New York, John was the president of Duke Ellington Society, and was responsible for the naming of West 106th Street as Duke Ellington Boulevard in 1977. John performed with jazz greats like Uval Cohen, Haim Cotton, and Dr. Billy Taylor. In 1998, John was named the “Iridium Riding High Singer of the Year.” 

John began attending the Manhattan Church of Christ in 1955 and was baptized by Burton Coffman in 1958. John was one of the first African Americans in the Manhattan Church and helped greatly in the process of integrating the congregation and making it the diverse community that it is day. Because of his great gifts as a singer, John served as the principal music director for the church for over thirty years. During some periods he shared the role with the singer Pat Boone and others.  

During the nearly 60 years that John has been a faithful member of the Manhattan Church, he has also worked to support various ministries such as the Community of Hope, Camp Shiloh, our mission work in Honduras, and others. In later years John developed his own personal ministry to members of the church. He would call each person individually on their birthday and sing “Happy Birthday” to them with his deep, rich, mellow voice. 

John was a beloved part of the church family who carried in himself much of the history of the congregation. He is greatly missed!  

Today — February 28, the last day of Black History Month for 2021 — the Manhattan Church of Christ met for pandemic Sunday worship on zoom and we were able to hear a recording of John’s beautiful voice singing “Precious Lord Take My Hand.”

We miss him.

We remember him, and we honor his life.

We are grateful for the impact he made on our lives and on our world.

And we are humbled.