Gladys Horton, co-founder of Motown's Marvelettes, dies at 65 [Updated]

 

 

Gladys Horton, who co-founded the 1960s Motown group the Marvelettes and sang on hits including "Please Mr. Postman," died Wednesday night at a Sherman Oaks nursing home. She was 65.

[For the record, 8:40 p.m.: An earlier version of this post said Horton was 66. She was born May 30, 1945, and age 65 when she died.]

Her son, Vaughn Thornton, said she had been recovering from a stroke.

Horton was a teenager in the Detroit suburb of Inkster when she and some friends formed a group they called "The Casinyets," which was short for "can't sing yet."

When Georgia Dobbins had to leave, Horton became lead singer. The group changed its name to The Marvelettes, and Horton was 15 when Motown released "Please Mr. Postman" in 1961. It was a hit and the group had many others, including "Too Many Fish in the Sea." Horton was replaced as lead singer in 1965 and left the group two years later.

The complete Times obituary is here.

-- Associated Press

 

Comments

[michael]

Gladys has a son Sammy Coleman who attended Widney High School in the 90's. Although he has multiple disabilities he was always cheerful and fun to be around. I knew his mother but when I found out she was in the Marvelettes I asked her if she would perform for our school. She did and gave us all a thrill. Thank you Gladys and rest in peace.

[Dean]

She was part of one of the many outstanding girl groups from Motown. I grew listening to their music. Great times.

[Robert Atkinson]

Whoaaa, I'm still trying to get a reality check that we've lost Gladys Horton. I've had 5 people call me about it because I knew her and worked with her in the studio and on tour for about 3 1/2 years in the late 1980s. I have many fond memories of adventures with her on our projects to get her back out there again.

As a teen and young adult, I bought all the Marvelettes's recordings and they were always "top stars" in my book regardless of how they were treated in the record industry or not being at the top of the charts all the time. I always wondered what it would be like to meet them. I wasn't allowed to go to concerts as a teen, only saw them on TV and feedback from my friends who got to see them live. They were the best live act of the girl groups out there. Great energetic and creative choreography compared to all the other girl groups.

So back in 1987 it was just fantastic for me when I was pursuing writing and producing while living in Studio City, California to get an invitation from the late Allen Poe, asssitant to Mary Wilson of The Supremes, at the time, to meet Mary and present any ballads I had ready. So it was through Mary Wilson that I got to meet Gladys Horton at a dedication and art gallery showing in honor of the late Florence Ballard of The Supremes.

Gladys and I hit it off immediately on ideas for recording and working toward being a solo act as well as preparing herself by getting books of understanding basic contracts and laws in the music industry. I suggested she get her own publishing set up through BMI like I was or ASCAP for her writings, and learn some basics in copyright laws and get forms, etc. Copyist Bill Marles, who was an ardent fan also at the time, gave me a great discounted price to do a detailed lead sheet from Gladys’s cassette tape of a song she had written so that she could file with ASCAP to get herself set up as "LADY G MUSIC." She was very proud of that and so was I. A BIG INDEPENDENT STEP FORWARD. :)

The first project we tackled was she wanted tracks recorded of most of their major Motown hits so she could start singing live in clubs to get things going again and work her way up to a live band and backup singers later. So we did it all. I laid down all the tracks, she did all the backup vocals herself and we were set to go. That's what she used to peform at the Widney High School that her son Sammy Coleman attended and other such small gigs like that to get things going again. It's interesting also to hear her do Wanda Rogers's leads in her own style. I loved both of their lead styles, and felt it was a great asset to the group to have 2 leads. She was so very creative and flexible and very professional in the studio. It was always exciting to work with her in capturing her creativity on recording.

We also did a message song she wrote, UNIVERSAL LOVE, and a dance song I wrote, YOU'RE MY PRIME TIME, so that we could shop them around to the majors and independent labels to try and get a deal going. It was very frustrating to get the response that they were glad to hear her singing again and back out there, but weren't interested in signing her up. One rejection note indicated she had no house-hold name recognition on her own like Diana Ross or Martha Reeves, except to ardent fans, and that she was in her mid 40s and they weren't interested in the expense of trying to break a new artist at that age. Ironically, years earlier Wanda Rogers experienced that same view on what was to be her solo effort, and because of no solo name recognition it was called THE RETURN OF THE MARVELETTES.

Also, since the Marvelettes never got to do a Christmas production, we did an original song for the holiday season, too, but it still needed some finishing touches at the time we had stopped working on it to pursue a chance at a TV special for HBO filmed at Caesar’s Palace in Vegas. Unfortunately that deal fell through.

But her April 17, 1988 successful showcase at Carlos 'N Charlie's on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood led to booking offers all over the world eventually but it was based on the name value of THE MARVELETTES, not GLADYS HORTON.

Promoter Larry Marshak owned the name and it caused issues for bookings using that exact name. Two or three sets of fakes were working all over the place. So other agents booked her as either Gladys Horton of the Original Marvelettes or Gladys Horton's Marvelettes, etc., to avoid the exact words "THE MARVELTTES."

It worked and we got to do Vegas, various clubs, county fairs, college campuses, a movie in Canada, and tour of England with the Crystals and Shangri Las.

It was at that point that I had had enough of the ups and downs of the music industry and various other issues with money, etc., and left the industry to pursue education in law and medicine and basically lost touch with everyone.

But it's amazing how we get so comfortable with someone always being around and you think they always will be. The Marvelettes have been so important musically for 50 years in my life that it's very saddening to lose another one, especially a unique lead vocalist like Gladys......hard to believe she's gone. Great memories and a great teenage dream-come-true adventure.

R.I.P. LADY G. Your great historic vocal legacy still lives and always will!!!