Mable John

Who they were

Biography John was born in Bastrop, Louisiana , on November 3, 1930, [ 1 ] the eldest of at least nine siblings. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] At a very young age, she and her parents, Mertis and Lillie (Robinson) John, [ 3 ] moved north into Arkansas , where her father got a job in a paper mill near Cullendale . Here four of her brothers (including R&B singer Little Willie John ) and two sisters were born. In 1941, after her father was able to secure a better job, the family moved to Detroit ,

Personal life John's career, according to music historians, was "unjustly overshadowed" by her brother's recording career that started several years before Mable's. [ 1 ] In the late 1970s, John started a Los Angeles charity called "Joy Community Outreach to End Homelessness" that provided food and clothing to more than 100 people a day. [ 1 ] John died in Los Angeles on August 25, 2022, at the age of 91. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Married several times,

Mable John was an American blues vocalist and the first female artist signed by Berry Gordy to Motown's Tamla label.

Early life

Educated at: Pershing High School.

Why this date

Mable John appears on our August 25 calendar for 2022 as a death entry.