American singer, leader of the long-lived rhythm and blues pop group “Gladys Knight and The Pips.” In 1989, the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. On 2/26/1998, they were given the 1998 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in New York City. Originally, Knight went into show business because of family hardships to help support her family and she established herself as a rock and soul singer in the ’60s and ’70s with hits such as “Midnight Train to Georgia.”
Knight was the daughter of Atlanta postal worker, Merald Knight and his wife Elizabeth. At the age of four, Gladys astounded others as a precocious child vocalist soloing at Mount Mariah Baptist Church in Atlanta. In 1952, she appeared on the “Ted Mack Amateur Hour” after winning a national talent contest at Madison Square Garden in New York. That same year, she formed “The Pips” with her older brother Bubba and her cousins. When she was 13, her dad suffered a nervous breakdown and Knight hit the show business circuit with her backup singers to earn a living.
In 1960, at the age of 16, Knight found herself pregnant by Atlanta musician Jimmy Newman. The couple married and soon after Knight experienced a devastating miscarriage. The marriage was in trouble financially but the couple continued to persevere through a difficult time. Knight gave birth to son Jimmy in 1962 and daughter Kenya in 1964. When her husband became addicted to drugs, he soon abandoned his wife and young kids, ending the marriage in divorce. Disaster struck with Jimmy Jr., her 36-year-old son, died following a two day alcohol-induced cocaine binge. He died in his sleep on 7/10/1999 of a drug overdose in Las Vegas, NV.
After a decade of club dates around the country, “Gladys Knight and The Pips” scored a hit with “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” 1967. The song made it to the top of the pop charts.
In the 1970s, “Gladys Knight and The Pips” received plenty of radio air play with “If I Were Your Woman” and “Neither One of Us.” With a career peak 1973-76, the group was recognized by the music industry with Grammy Awards in 1973 and again in 1988.
Knight embarked on her second marriage, and her son Shanga was born on 8/01/1976. But the couple ended up in a long, bitter custody battle and experienced financial disaster from her husband’s film projects.
By 1989, Knight was ready to step out into a solo singing career. She continued to record albums but accused the music industry of racial prejudice. She was unhappy to find solo artists Michael Bolton and Mariah Carey heavily promoted by white pop executives who were encouraging white acts to sound black. Knight also believed that there was an audience for older singing artists rather than the concentration on new youth acts by the industry.
She continued to perform regularly at Las Vegas casino stage shows. Since 1978, she has been a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada living in a six-bedroom desert home. Knight soon became addicted to gambling. She first began to bet on football games. Soon, baccarat became an all-consuming passion. She would regularly win or lose tens of thousands of dollars during a single night. Every day she would wake up with the excited expectation of playing baccarat. In the late 1980s, Knight bottomed out after a high-stakes binge loss of $45,000. She went to Gamblers Anonymous to help her kick her demon habit. Religion has been a comfort to Knight in controlling her addiction. Born a Baptist, Knight converted to Roman Catholicism, and today relies on her belief in the Mormon religion.
As a businesswoman, she invested money in her daughter’s successful bakery emporium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 1995, Knight married Les Brown, a successful author and motivational speaker who lectures around the country. They had difficulty adopting their contrasting career schedules to married life. Brown encouraged his wife to write her autobiography and helped her get her $500,000 book advance from Hyperion book publishers. “Gladys Knight: Between Each Line of Pain and Glory” was published in 1997. That year, while Brown was on the road, Knight was served with divorce papers from her husband. Single again, Knight has not given up on finding love despite her three unhappy marital experiences.
In early 2001, more than six years since her last pop-R&B album, “Just For You,” Knight has come out with “At Last.” Not that she has been retired; in those years the souls legend has released an inspirational CD, published her autobiography and along with the Pips, has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Rhythm & Blues halls of fame.
Gladys Knight married corporate consultant William
McDowell, age undisclosed, on 4/12/2001.
Link to Wikipedia biography