American soul and R&B singer-songwriter Theodore DeReese Pendergrass passed away on January 13, 2010. He was born on March 26, 1950.
In South Carolina’s Kingstree, he was born. Pendergrass, who spent the majority of his life in the Philadelphia region, first achieved musical success as Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes’ lead singer.
Pendergrass launched a lucrative solo career with the Philadelphia International label after leaving the band in 1976, scoring five straight platinum albums (a record at the time for an African-American R&B artist). Following an automobile accident in March 1982 that left Pendergrass paraplegic from the waist down, his career was put on hold. Up until the time he announced his retirement in 2007, Pendergrass had a lucrative solo career. In January 2010, he passed away from respiratory failure.
Pendergrass was engaged in a car accident on March 18, 1982, in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia on Lincoln Drive close to Rittenhouse Street while operating his brand-new Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit. Tenika Watson, a transsexual person Pendergrass had known since the 1970s, was apparently being driven to his home at the time of the tragedy. Watson thought that the car’s technical problem and perhaps some brake tampering were to blame for the collision. Pendergrass was sober and unable of understanding why the brakes failed, according to Watson, who attested to this fact. The vehicle slammed through two trees, a guard post, and the oncoming lane. No additional vehicles were present. The two were trapped in the wreckage for 45 minutes before being rescued by emergency personnel. While Watson was able to walk away from the collision with minor injuries, Pendergrass sustained a spinal cord injury that rendered him tetraplegic, paralyzed from the chest down; he never walked again.
Teddy Pendergrass children: Meet Tisha, LaDonna, Teddy II
Tisha, LaDonna, and Theodore Jr. were Pendergrass’ three children.
Taazmayia “Taaz” Lang, Pendergrass’ manager and girlfriend, was shot dead on the doorstep of her home in April 1977. The murder is still unsolved, though the Black Mafia of Philadelphia has been suspected, as they allegedly resented Lang’s control over Pendergrass’ lucrative career.
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