Eugene Smith, whose ardent baritone and evangelical showmanship made him a celebrity among churchgoers on the South Side of Chicago and a national influence on generations of gospel singers, died Saturday in Chicago, where he lived his entire life. He was 88.

His death was confirmed by Smith’s godson, the Rev. Maceo Woods, an organist and the pastor and choir director of the Christian Tabernacle Church in Chicago, where Smith was a congregant.

Smith was 12 when he was selected by Roberta Martin, the minister of music at the Mount Pisgah Baptist Church, to be one of the original Roberta Martin Singers. They became a leading gospel group for more than three decades, eventually recording for Savoy and Apollo Records and performing throughout the country.

“By the 1940s, even without phonograph records, they were nationally recognized,” Tony Heilbut, a gospel historian, record producer and the author of “The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times” (1971), said Monday. “They became the model for all subsequent groups — the Famous Ward Singers, the Original Gospel Harmonettes, the Caravans.”

To the Roberta Martin sound, which was musically refined and even restrained, Smith brought rhythm and blues and the raucous thrill of revivalism.

A spark plug of a man — he was barely 5 feet tall — Smith was known as a gospel narrator, who would make long, inspired and inspiring introductions to musical numbers at church services, and who would run up and down the aisles, shaking hands, exhorting, pantomiming religious ecstasy and often stirring worshipers to a frenzied, joyous delight in their faith.

His manner and his singing style were imitated by many, including celebrated gospel singers like James Cleveland and Alex Bradford.