Gladys Knight

Gladys Maria Knight (born May 28, 1944), known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author. She is best known for the hits she recorded during the 1960s and 1970s, for both the Motown and Buddah Records labels, with her group Gladys Knight & the Pips, the most famous incarnation of which also included her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight and her cousins Edward Patten and William Guest. Knight has won a total of seven Grammy awards (four as a solo artist, and three with The Pips). --- Knight was born in Oglethorpe, Georgia, the daughter of Sarah Elizabeth (née Woods) and Merald Woodlow Knight, Sr., a postal worker. She first achieved minor fame by winning Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour TV show contest at the age of 7 in 1952. The following year, she, her brother Merald, sister Brenda, and cousins William and Elenor Guest formed a musical group called The Pips (named after another cousin, James "Pip" Woods). By the end of the decade, the act had begun to tour, and had replaced Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest with Gladys Knight's cousin Edward Patten and friend Langston George. Gladys Knight & the Pips joined the Motown roster in 1966, and, although regarded as a second-string act, scored several hit singles, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", (recorded first by Marvin Gaye but released a year later), "Friendship Train" (1969), "If I Were Your Woman" (1970), "I Don't Want To Do Wrong" (1971), the Grammy Award winning "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)" (1972), and "Daddy Could Swear (I Declare)" (1973). In their early Motown career Gladys Knight and the Pips toured as the opening act for Diana Ross and The Supremes. Gladys Knight stated in her memoirs that Ross kicked her off the tour because the audience's reception to Knight's soulful performance overshadowed her. Berry Gordy later told Gladys that she was giving his act a hard time. The act left Motown for a better deal with Buddah Records in 1973, and achieved full-fledged success that year with hits such as the Grammy-winning "Midnight Train to Georgia" (#1 on the pop and R&B chart), "I've Got to Use My Imagination," and "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me". --- Knight has been married four times and given birth to three children. In 1960, Knight married her high school sweetheart, James Newman. Gladys gave birth to their son, James "Jimmy" Newman (1962–1999). She retired from the road to raise the child while The Pips toured on their own. After giving birth in 1963 to her only daughter, businesswoman Kenya (Newman) Jackson, Knight returned to recording with the Pips in order to support her family. Newman and Knight divorced in 1973. She lived in Sherwood Forest, a neighborhood of Detroit and her children attended Jesu Catholic Grade School. She married producer and Blackground Records founder Barry Hankerson, who is the uncle of the late R&B singer Aaliyah, in 1974. They had one son, Shanga Hankerson, and divorced in 1981. She married motivational speaker Les Brown in 1995, but they separated and divorced in 1997. Also in 1997, she was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, following her son and daughter. Knight married current husband, William McDowell, in 2001. They have sixteen grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.