Rays Childhood; Category 1; Entry 2

Georges Death

            When Ray was only five years old he helplessly watched as his four year old brother George drowned in a washtub. There isn’t much information about Rays little brother or the accident. But later on down the road Ray would feel a ton of guilt over the death of his brother. Much later down the road Rays son Ray Charles Robinson Jr. states that the legendary Ray Charles hid the pain and guilt that he felt from not being able to save his little brother that day. Ray Jr. insists that his father never recovered from watching his little brother drown in that wash tub. He also states that getting his father to talk about his little brother was almost impossible…that you could see that he still held himself responsible for Georges death: Mr. Charles Jr. States “the last thing my father remembers from that day is the sight of his mother, her face streaming with tears, carrying Georges lifeless body into a cabin.” (Page 1 of 2 printed from http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/views/w0003860.html). Even in the movie about Ray called “Ray” it shows that Ray would hallucinate or feel things that weren’t really there, like water around him and then feel his dead brother’s body.