Marvin’s father, Marvin Pence Turner Gaye Sr., Marvin’s father, the third of thirteen children was born on a farm along Catnip Pike in Jessamine County, Kentucky on October 1st, 1914. Gaye’s parents had been sharecroppers and his mother broke sharply from the rest of the black community joining what seemed to her neighbors an eccentric church…a mixture of orthodox Judaism and Pentecostal Christianity. If you want to understand my religion and the spirit I received as a child, Marvin Jr. once instructed me, in his high pitched, sad voice; then you must begin by talking to Bishop Rawlings.
The church women, Marvin Jr., remembered, oh how they loved it when I sang. The gospel music in the House of God was traditional, widely emotional, loose and free. Wailing saxophones, tambourines, organ, piano, guitars, trumpets, call and response, handclaps and dancing in the aisles. I love my father’s religion, Marvin Jr., told me. At a very early age I realized I was born into a rootsy church and I found it exciting.
Marvin Sr., followed his mother into the church. I was enraptured with God and all he could give, Marvin Sr., related to me when I first met him in 1979. In describing his childhood, he spoke eloquently, his voice tinged with an accent that sounded slightly affected, slightly aristocratic. Our ministers were not formerly trained, Bishop Rawlings explained. Mr Gaye like myself was divinely ordained…
In 1934 Gaye met his wife to be, Alberta, in Washington DC where he had come to preach. When I met my husband, I had just came from Rocky Mountain, NC. I also had an infant son, Michael. I knew nothing about the city and city life. Mr. Gaye and Mr. Rawlings both courted me. Only later on did I learn about the awful violence of the Gaye family back in Lexington. There were stories of shootings…on July 2nd, 1935, Marvin Sr. And Alberta were married in Washington DC…
