Berry Gordy

About Berry Gordy

Berry Gordy, Jr. (born November 28, 1929, Detroit, Michigan) is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label and its many subsidiaries.

Gordy, Jr. was the seventh of eight children born to the middle class family of Berry Gordy II (a.k.a. Berry Gordy, Sr.) and Bertha Fuller Gordy, who had relocated to Detroit from Milledgeville, Georgia in 1922. Gordy was brought up in a tight-knit family with strong morals. Berry Gordy II (1888–1978) was the son of Berry Gordy I and a woman named Lucy. Berry Gordy I was the son of James Thomas Gordy, a white farmer, and a female slave in Georgia. This James Thomas Gordy (1828–1889) was also, by his wife Harriet Emily Helms, the great-grandfather of James Earl Carter, Jr., the 39th President of the United States, making Berry Gordy III and Jimmy Carter second half-cousins. It is also through James Thomas Gordy (and James' great-grandfather Andreas Presley) that Berry Gordy and Jimmy Carter were sixth cousins to Elvis Presley.

Berry Gordy II was lured to Detroit by the many job opportunities for blacks that booming automotive businesses like Ford offered.