Gladys Maria Knight, known as the “Empress of Soul,” was born on May 28, 1944 in Los Angeles, California. In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Knight recorded singles with her family group Gladys Knight & the Pips, which comprised her brother Merald “Bubba” Knight and cousins William Guest and Edward Patten.
She has a deceased brother named David, a living brother named Merald “Bubba” Jr., and an older sister named Brenda. Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, she sung in the church choir. In 1952, she was eight years old when she won Ted Mack’s The Original Amateur Hour TV show contest.
Gladys, her brother Bubba, her sister Brenda, and their cousins Eleanor and William Guest started playing together the same year after a record player broke down at Bubba’s ninth birthday party. Elizabeth Knight, Gladys’ mother, persisted in pushing the quintet to form a band.
How old was Gladys Knight when she had her first child?
Gladys Knight had four marriages and three children in all. She became pregnant at the age of 16 and married guitarist James ‘Jimmy’ Newman in 1960.
