Dr. Mattie Moss-Clark (Mattie Juliet Moss) was born the seventh of nine children to ministers Fred and Mattie J. (née Walker) Moss in Selma, Alabama. Moss began playing piano at six. By twelve, she had become the musician for her mother’s services at the Holiness Temple Church of Christ in Prayer and traveled with her mother to play at mission services, a trend she passed on to daughter Twinkie. After high school, she attended Selma University and received training in classical music and choral singing. Moss moved to Detroit in her early twenties to be with her sister Sybil Burke and became a member of Greater Love Tabernacle Church of God in Christ. There, under the leadership of Bishop W. Rimson, she gave her life to Christ, was water baptized, received the infilling/baptism of the Holy Ghost and subsequently became the Minister of Music. She served a historic tenure as Minister of Music for both Southwest Michigan Jurisdiction and Bailey Temple Church of God in Christ, under Bishop John Seth Bailey. Soon she was in demand to train choirs at churches throughout the brotherhood of COGIC.