Gladys Maria Knight dubbed the “Empress of Soul,” is an American singer and actress who was born on May 28, 1944. Knight, a seven-time Grammy Award winner, is well-known for the successes she and her band The Pips, which also included her brother Merald “Bubba” Knight, cousins William Guest, and Edward Patten, made in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
Who is Gladys Knight’s first husband?
She got pregnant at age 16 and wed James “Jimmy” Newman, a guitarist from Atlanta, in 1960. She miscarried; the couple later had two children. At the age of 20, Newman developed a heroin addiction and left the family.
Until 1973, they were wed for more than 12 years. On August 13, 1962, James “Jimmy” Gaston Newman III was born. While the Pips went on their tour, she stopped traveling to focus on raising their child.
Kenya Maria Newman, Knight’s lone child, was born in November of 1963. Later, to support her family, she went back to recording with the Pips.
Gladys, James, and the Pips relocated to Detroit at the beginning of the 1960s. Knight and her family resided on Sherbourne Road in the affluent West Side Detroit community of Sherwood Forest. She once lived on LaSalle Avenue.
Her kids went to Gesu Catholic Elementary School. Knight divorced Newman in 1973 after seven years of separation, and he passed away a few years after.
