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Endless Love
#1 in 1981
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Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. was born June 20, 1949 in Tuskegee,
Alabama, Richie grew up on the campus of Tuskegee Institute. His
grandfather's house was across the street from the home of the president
of the Institute. His family moved to Illinois where he graduated from
Joliet Township High School, East Campus, in Joliet. A star tennis
player in Joliet, he accepted a tennis scholarship back at Tuskegee
Institute and later graduated with a major in economics. Diana Ross was
born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross on March 26, 1944, and was the front
woman for the Supremes until she went solo in 1970. Ross' family lived
in the northern side of Detroit's streets where Ross befriended
next-door neighbor Smokey Robinson. When Ross was seven, her mother
contracted tuberculosis causing her to become seriously ill. Ross'
father moved his children to live with relatives in Bessemer, Alabama.
After her mother recovered, her family moved back to Detroit when Ross
was fourteen years old, and lived in the Brewster-Douglass projects. The
following year, Ross began her music career with neighborhood friends
Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, and Betty McGlown as the doo-wop quartet
the Primettes (later renamed The Supremes), a sister group to local act
The Primes (later The Temptations). |