Berry Gordy

Berry Gordy III was born on November 28, 1929, in Detroit, the seventh of the eight children of Berry Gordy Jr. (also known as Berry Sr.) from the Gordy family and Bertha Fuller Gordy, who had relocated to Detroit from Oconee, Georgia, in 1922 as a part of the Great Migration.

His paternal grandfather, named Berry Gordy, was the son of James Thomas Gordy, a white plantation owner in Georgia, and one of his slaves. Berry Sr.'s half-brother, James Jackson Gordy (son of the elder James and his legal wife), was the grandfather of President Jimmy Carter. Berry Gordy Jr. 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 the black community was the target of rampant, racial attacks by the Ku Klux Klan.

Gordy's 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, Gordy and his brother Robert were less inclined to follow that path; both liked dancing and music, but Gordy's 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 chaplain's 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.

After his return from Korea in 1953, he married 19-year-old Thelma Louise Coleman in Toledo, Ohio. Gordy developed his interest in music by writing songs and opening the 3-D Record Mart, a record store featuring jazz music and 3-D glasses. The store was unsuccessful, and Gordy sought work at the Lincoln-Mercury plant, but his family connections put him in touch with Al Green (no relation to the singer Reverend Al Green), owner of the Flame Show Bar Talent Club, where he met the singer Jackie Wilson.

In 1957, Wilson recorded "Reet Petite", a song Gordy had co-written with his sister Gwen and writer-producer Billy Davis. It became a modest hit, but had more success internationally, especially in the UK, where it reached the Top 10 and even later topped the chart on re-issue in 1986. Wilson recorded six more songs co-written by Gordy over the next two years, including "Lonely Teardrops", which topped the R&B charts and got to number 7 in the pop chart. The Gordy siblings and Davis also wrote "All I Could Do Was Cry" for Etta James at Chess Records.

Gordy, who was married and divorced three times, has eight children with six different women. His publishing company, Jobete, was named after his three eldest children: Joy, Berry and Terry.

He had three children with his first wife, Thelma Coleman, who he married in 1953. They divorced in 1959:

Hazel Joy Gordy (born August 24, 1954), was once married to Jermaine Jackson

Berry Gordy IV (born October 1955), father to Skyler Austen Gordy

Terry James Gordy (born August 1956)

In the spring of 1960, he married Raynoma Mayberry Liles. They divorced in 1964. They had one son:

Kerry Gordy (born June 25, 1959)

With Jeana Jackson, Gordy had one daughter:

Sherry Gordy (born May 23, 1963)

With his then-mistress Margaret Norton, Gordy had a son:

Kennedy William Gordy (born March 15, 1964); would later become known as the Motown musician Rockwell

Gordy had a daughter with Motown artist Diana Ross, with whom he had an intimate relationship from 1965 to 1970:

Rhonda Suzanne Silberstein (born August 14, 1971)

Gordy's eighth and youngest child is a son born to Nancy Leiviska:

Stefan Kendal Gordy (born September 3, 1975); he is known by his stage name, Redfoo, as one member of the duo LMFAO. The other member is Skyler Gordy, born August 23, 1986, known professionally as SkyBlu. He is a grandson of Gordy and Thelma Coleman through their son Berry IV and his wife, Valerie Robeson.

Berry married Grace Eaton on July 17, 1990, and they divorced in 1993.

He is a second cousin of US president Jimmy Carter. His relation to Carter stems from their white great-grandfather James Thomas Gordy who owned a black female slave named Esther Johnson.

A sexual assault lawsuit filed against Jermaine Jackson in December 2023 by Rita Barrett, who was the wife of Gordy's friend Ben Barrett, alleged Gordy assisted in covering up Jackson's sexual assault of her in 1988.