Gladys Horton was born in Gainesville, Florida, in 1944 or 1945, given up for adoption at nine months, and raised in foster homes before landing in a Henry Ford-built housing project in Inkster, Michigan. At 14 she formed the Del-Rhythmettes, who recorded for the small JVB label. In 1960 she assembled the Casinyets with Georgeanna Tillman, Katherine Anderson, Juanita Cowart and Georgia Dobbins. After a talent show earned them a Motown audition, the label asked for original material, and Dobbins came back with Please Mr. Postman.
Then Dobbins’ father refused to let her stay in the group, and Horton, who had never wanted the lead, took over the microphone. Renamed the Marvelettes, they reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961, Motown’s first pop chart-topper. By 1965 Wanda Young had become the main lead, and in 1967 Horton left to marry trumpeter Sammy Coleman and care for her son Sammy, born with cerebral palsy. Years of moving between Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Inkster followed, without radio residuals for her recordings.
- She also sang lead on Playboy, Beechwood 4-5789 and Too Many Fish in the Sea.
- Her son Alfonso was killed in a shooting in 1991.
- In 1990 she and Wanda Young reunited for Ian Levine’s The Marvelettes Now; Young sang Holding On With Both Hands on record while Horton performed it live.
- She was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy in 2006 and suffered several strokes before dying in Sherman Oaks on January 26, 2011, at 65.
- Her memoir A Letter from the Postman, co-written with her son Vaughn, was published in 2022.
Leave a Reply