Dionne Warwick

Dionne Warwick biography

Dionne Warwick (born Marie Dionne Warrick; December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health.

Having been in a partnership with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest hit makers of the entire rock era (1955-1999), based on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Charts. Warwick ranks second only to Aretha Franklin as the most-charted female vocalist with 56 singles making the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998. She is also a cousin of Whitney Houston.

Biography

Early life and career

Warwick was born in East Orange, New Jersey, to Mancel Warwick (1911-1977), who began his career as a Pullman porter and subsequently became a chef, a gospel record promoter for Chess Records and later a Certified Public Accountant; and Lee Drinkard Warwick (1920-2005), manager of The Drinkard Singers (see below). Warwick had a sister Delia "Dee Dee" and a brother, Mancel Jr., who was killed in an accident in 1968 at the age of 21.. She has African American, Native American, Brazilian and Dutch ancestry.

Dionne's career as a singer was almost inevitable considering her family background. Dionne's mother, aunts and uncles were members of the Drinkard Singers, the renowned family gospel group and RCA recording artists that frequently performed throughout the New York metropolitan area. The Drinkard family originated in Blakley, Georgia and migrated to Newark, New Jersey in the late 20's. The family was composed of Nitcholas "Nitch" Drinkard, and Delia Drinkard, Warwick's grandparents, and their children: William, Lee (Warwick's mother), Marie "Rebbie" (Warwick's namesake), Hansom, Anne, Larry, Nicky, and Emily "Cissy" (who is the mother of Warwick's late cousin, Whitney Houston). Dionne's paternal grandfather Elzae Warrick was the preacher at St. Luke's AME, the church attended by the Drinkard family. Lee Drinkard and the preacher's son, Mancel, were later married, and Dionne became the Drinkard family's first grandchild on December 12, 1940. The original Drinkard Singers (known as the Drinkard Jubilairs) consisted of Cissy, Anne, Larry, and Nicky. Marie instructed the group and they were managed by Lee. As they became more successful, Lee and Marie also began performing with the group, and they were augmented by Judy Guoins, later known as pop/R&B singer Judy Clay, whom Lee had unofficially adopted. Elvis Presley eventually expressed an interest in having them join his touring entourage. Dionne began singing gospel as a child at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. She performed her first gospel solo at the age of six and frequently joined The Drinkard Singers. Her first televised performances were in the mid-and late 1950s with the Drinkard Singers on local television stations in New Jersey and New York City. Warwick grew up in a racially mixed middle-class neighborhood. She stated in an interview on The Biography Channel in 2002 that the neighborhood in East Orange "was literally the United Nations of neighborhoods. We had every nationality, every creed, every religion right there on our street." Warwick was untouched by the harsher aspects of racial intolerance and discrimination until her early professional career, when she began touring nationally.

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