Mable John (November 3, 1930 – August 25, 2022) was an American blues vocalist and the first female artist signed by Berry Gordy to Motown's Tamla label.
Biography
John was born in Bastrop, Louisiana, on November 3, 1930, the eldest of at least nine siblings. At a very young age, she and her parents, Mertis and Lillie (Robinson) John, moved north into Arkansas, where her father got a job in a paper mill near Cullendale. Here four of her brothers (including R&B singer Little Willie John) and two sisters were born.
In 1941, after her father was able to secure a better job, the family moved to Detroit, where two additional brothers were born. She attended Cleveland Intermediate School and then Pershing High School. After graduating, she took a job as an insurance representative at Friendship Mutual Insurance Agency, a company run by Berry Gordy's mother, Bertha.
Later, she left the company and spent two years at Lewis Business College. She subsequently ran into Mrs. Gordy again, who told Mable that her son, Berry, was writing songs and was looking for people to record them. Gordy began coaching her and would accompany John on piano at local engagements. This continued until 1959, when John performed at the Flame Show bar on John R Street at the last show that Billie Holiday did in Detroit, just weeks before Holiday's death.
In 2006, John and David Ritz collaborated on a novel titled Sanctified Blues, about a former singer turned spiritual leader.
John played Bertha Mae, a veteran blues singer, in John Sayles' 2007 movie Honeydripper, and appeared in the 2014 Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom.
In the late 1970s, John started a Los Angeles charity called "Joy Community Outreach to End Homelessness" that provided food and clothing to more than 100 people a day. Married several times, a complete list of survivors was not available at the time of her death.