Our Story
How a concert in Oklahoma became a family ministry.
A lot of people want to know how James and Starla Dean came together, so it’s best to start from the beginning.
James
James grew up in Wakeman, Ohio. He was raised in church and always loved to sing. He accepted Christ when he was 15, and from then on he wanted to sing for the Lord. At 19 he began traveling nationally with The Kevin Spencer Family, which later became Kevin Spencer and Friends. That would lead him to meet his wife, Starla, in 2001.
Starla
Starla grew up in Durant, Oklahoma. Like James, she was raised in church. She was saved at 12 and never dreamed that singing, something she simply enjoyed, would be God’s plan for her life. She sang in choir from middle school through college and with her sisters in their home church. She and her twin sister, Sharla, sang at events broadcast by The Gospel Station in Ada, Oklahoma, and held concerts bringing in Southern Gospel artists from across the country. It was at one of those concerts that James, Starla and Sharla met.
James likes to say Sharla had a lot to do with it: Starla didn’t want to go that night, and Sharla talked her into it. Since the twins are identical, James says it took him a while to figure out which one he wanted to date. They began dating in 2004, were engaged in 2005, and married on June 10, 2006.
On the Road
Around the time they married, Kevin Spencer and Friends needed a tenor. Two weeks after the wedding, James and Starla were singing with Kevin. From 2006 to 2010 they sang top-charting songs, appeared on Gospel Music Television, and were part of the Gaither Gospel Series on Rock of Ages and Amazing Grace. Their concerts took them to Canada, Honduras and Grand Cayman, and to most of the fifty states.
That chapter closed when their daughter Adalyn was born in 2010. Through those years they saw the power of the Gospel in song as lives were changed for the glory of God, and the Lord wasn’t finished with them yet. He opened the door for a ministry of their own, as James and Starla Dean.
Adalyn and Kynsten
Adalyn grew up on the road. By her first birthday she had been to 25 states, and she has celebrated more birthdays traveling than at home. At five she recorded her first song, the reprise of “Tell Somebody” on our album of the same name.
Kynsten joined the family in November 2013 and started life on the road fifteen days later, with a 13-day trip. She is the personality of the family, loves music, and has been a road warrior ever since.
We feel blessed by the opportunity the Lord has given us to minister together to people across the United States and beyond, and we pray He will keep using us, with songs that reach people’s hearts.