Berry Gordy

Berry Gordy III born November 28 1929 known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr is an American retired record executive record producer songwriter film producer and television producer He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries which was the highestearning AfricanAmerican business for decades As a songwriter Gordy composed or cocomposed a number of hits including Lonely Teardrops and Thats Why Jackie Wilson Shop Around the Miracles and Do You Love Me the Contours all of which topped the US RB charts as well as the international hit Reet Petite Jackie Wilson As part of the Corporation he wrote many hit songs for the Jackson 5 including I Want You Back and ABC As a record producer he launched the Miracles and signed acts like the Supremes Marvin Gaye the Temptations the Four Tops Gladys Knight the Pips and Stevie Wonder He was known for carefully directing the public image dress manners and choreography of his acts Gordy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama in 2016 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2021 In 2022 he was inducted into the Black Music Entertainment Walk of Fame Berry Gordy III also known as Berry Gordy Jr was the seventh of eight children Fuller Esther Anna Loucye George Gwen Berry and Robert born on November 28 1929 in Detroit to middleclass parents Berry Gordy II also known as Berry Gordy Sr and Bertha Fuller Gordy who had relocated to Detroit from Oconee Washington County Georgia in 1922 His grandfather named Berry Gordy I was the son of James Gordy a white plantation owner in Georgia and one of his slaves Berry Is halfbrother James son of the elder James and his legal wife was the grandfather of President Jimmy Carter Berry Gordy II was led to Detroit both by the job opportunities offered by the booming automotive businesses and also by worries over the atmosphere in the American South where black men were lynched with chilling regularity by the Ku Klux Klan in the first twenty years of the twentieth century 1502 lynchings were reported most in Southern states Gordys father opened a grocery store owned a plastering and carpentry business and a printing shop While his brothers Fuller and George were happy to work at jobs their father assigned to them in construction and printing Berry and Robert the younger boys were less inclined to follow that path Both Robert and Berry liked dancing and music but Berrys greatest interest was in boxing Gordy dropped out of Northeastern High School in the eleventh grade to become a professional boxer in hopes of becoming rich quickly he boxed professionally until 1950 when he was drafted by the United States Army in 1951 for service in the Korean War Arriving in Korea in May 1952 Gordy was first assigned to the 58th Field Artillery Battalion 3rd Infantry Division near Panmunjom He later became a chaplains assistant driving a jeep and playing the organ at religious services at the front His tour in the Korean War was completed in April 1953 He obtained a GED which is equivalent to a high school diploma Source Article Berry Gordy from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30