Esther-Gordy Edwards-Obituary

Esther Gordy Edwards

Obituary

DETROIT (AP) - Esther Gordy Edwards, who helped build Motown Records alongside her brother Berry Gordy Jr. and led efforts to turn its original Detroit headquarters into a museum, has died. She was 91.

Edwards died Wednesday surrounded by family and friends in Detroit, the Motown Historical Museum said in a statement.

Edwards was a Motown executive for nearly three decades, holding numerous leadership positions within the music company whose artists included Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and The Four Tops. Motown Records, which Berry Gordy started with a family loan in 1959, churned out scores of global hits from the building it dubbed "Hitsville, U.S.A." in Detroit. The company moved to Los Angeles in 1972.

Edwards served as senior vice president, corporate secretary and director of Motown International Operations, where she was charged with exposing the famed "Motown sound" to i nternational audiences.

Wonder has praised Edwards for being like a mother to him when he joined the label as a child. She is credited with helping Wonder enroll in the Michigan School for the Blind, as well as managing and guiding the careers of Robinson, Gaye, Diana Ross and others.

"She believed in me - when I was 14 years old and many other people didn't or could only see what they could at the time, she championed me being in Motown," Wonder said in a statement. "I shared with her many of my songs first before anyone else."

When Motown and most of her family moved to California, Edwards stayed behind. She amassed what would become Motown memorabilia and set to work on preserving the old headquarters, including the label's famed Studio A. The large stately former house on West Grand Boulevard opened as a museum in 1985.

"I always thought I was the visionary in the family but I missed the biggest thing of all when Esther turned the so-called trash l eft behind after I sold the company in 1988 into a phenomenal world-class monument at the spot where Hitsville started - the Motown museum," Berry Gordy said in a statement Thursday.

"She nurtured it and held it together, all through the years, to protect the Motown legacy for generations to come - which is only one of the reasons people all over the world will remember and celebrate Esther Gordy Edwards," he said.

Gordy also said Edwards gave him "the hardest time" when he sought to get the family loan to start what would become Motown Records. She became, he said, "one of my biggest assets at Motown."

According to an official biography released by the museum, Edwards was born in 1920 in Oconee, Ga., and moved to Detroit as a toddler. She was the eldest daughter in a family of eight children.

She first married Robert Bullock, with whom she had a son, Robert Berry Bullock. She later married state Rep. George Edwards and became a step-mother to his son, Harry.

One of her sisters, Anna Gordy Gaye, was Marvin Gaye's first wife.

In a statement, Robinson said Edwards was "one of the most important people to come into my life both personally and professionally." He said it's because of Edwards' "wisdom and foresight" that the museum exists, allowing "people now and for generations to come to have a firsthand look at our legacy."

"Thank you, Esther, and I know you are in the hands of God," he said.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete as of Thursday afternoon.


Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press

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Esther Gordy Edwards was one of the finest, decent & honest person I've known I was a close neighbor on w Boston Blvd, she'd help anyone ANYONE, she really had a heart of gold induring many illness's I've suffered long after moving on Esther checked on me on how I was & did I need her help with anything she'll always be the mother, sister I'd wished I'd had she had a strong influence on me & others, till we meet again Ms Esther Gordy Edwards I think of you so often Mike Berger

The most beautiful music of my teen years and even now came out of Motown. Your dedication to Motown will always be remembered in
this beautiful music we so dearly love. May comfort from Jehovah caress the hearts of your family.

THE GORDY FAMILY IS JUST FILLED WITH MUSICAL GENIUSES. THANKS for being the first known AFRICAN AMERICAN record label known all around the world. THANKS FOR ALL ONE'S HARD WORK

Sometimes we are blessed to whiteness a change that will be with us for every, and bring so much joy to our lives. Thanks to all that helped make Motown the greatest. Farewell Esther.

Remembering You as a friend you are missed and thought of often

i met Mrs. Edwards at the Motown Museum back in 1989 my first of many visits to the museum she talked and gave me her autograph on return visits she would say hi to me and i would do the same a very loving and caring person i think of you often

Thank you for your contribution to the music industry. You brought so much happiness to others. The music of my childhood, which lives on.

Thank you for making my career possible

Mrs. Edwards was my first "boss" back in 1967 when I joined Motown as their first full-time Art Director at the tender age of 19. As head of the Graphic Arts Department ( She ran Gordy Printing before joining Motown) Mrs. Edwards had charge of the "look" of the "Motown Sound." She brought me to Detroit from Washington D.C. to design Motown's record Albums and afforded me the greatest opportunity imaginable. When Motown left Detroit for LA I left Motown for a...