Rays Family Life; Category 3; Entry 1

Left to Right: Ray Charles Della  Beatrice Howard Robinson, David Robinson, Ray Charles Robinson Jr.

 Front Row: Robert Robinson

 Rays marriages:

                Ray was marries twice, once when he was twenty-five to a woman by the name of Eileen Williams. Eileen was beautician from Columbus, Ohio. Ray met Eileen through his friend, a man by the name of Billy Brooks. The two love birds got married in July the year of 1951. Their marriage ended in divorce in the year of 1952. There is no proof of records or anything stating that Ray and Eileen ever had any children together. Ray states that “Because he was on the road so much, the marriage was doomed from the start. Maybe I should have known that you can’t tell enough about a person after three weeks to decide about something as serious as marriage.” (Source from Ray himself found on page 2 of 2 printed from http://marrriage.about.com/od/enertainmen1/p/charlesray.htm). After his divorce with Eileen in 1952, about three years later Ray meets a woman by the name of Della Beatrice Howard Robinson in Houston, Texas. Ray automatically nicknamed Della “B”, Soon Ray and Della was married. Their marriage lasted for about twenty-two years; they got a divorce in the year of 1977. Ray and Della had three children together, Ray Charles Robinson Jr. who was born in 1955, David Robinson who was born around about 1958, Reverend Robert Robinson who was born around 1961. Once again Ray makes a statement about his marriage that went bad, “B and I had good twelve or thirteen years of marriage. Sometimes when I think about it, I’m surprised we managed that long. The pressure on us both was very heavy, and yet we endured them for a long spell. When we were together, we were together. I give her a great deal of credit for putting up with me and my strange ways…The other tremendous burden on her was my drug habit.” Ray also states that he blamed himself for a good eighty or eighty-five percent of the damage in his and Della’s marriage. He states “I was the one who fell into the dope and into paternity suits; I knew just what I was doing. I saw the risks, I was selfish.” Rays life might have ended, but only after he lived a long full life, and he did not die alone. Rays long term girlfriend and partner at the time of his death was Norma Pinella. (Source found on page 6 or 13 printed from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Charles).