Little Richard [Died of Cancer at 87] | Married, Wife, Son, Net Worth

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<p><a href="/biography/little-richard">Richard Wayne Penniman</a>, best known as Little Richard, was an American <a href="/biography/little-richard">musician</a>, singer, and songwriter who lived from December 5, 1932, to May 9, 2020. For seven decades, he was a significant presence in popular music and culture. Richard's most famous work, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding backbeat, and raspy shouted vocals, dates from the mid-1950s when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music laid the foundation for rock and roll. Richard's uptempo rhythmic music and unique emotive vocalizations influenced other popular music genres such as soul and funk. He impacted a wide range of singers and musicians from rock to hip hop, and his music shaped rhythm and blues for generations.</p>

<h2>Background</h2>

<p>Little Richard was born <a href="/biography/little-richard">Richard Wayne Penniman</a> on December 5, 1932, in Macon, Georgia. He was the third <a href="/biography/little-richard">son</a> in a family of twelve children. Richard's father made a living selling moonshine. He was brought up in a Christian family. His dad had issues with him, and he was ordered out of the family home, and Richard and his father's relationship never repaired. At 19, Richard heard of his father's death when he was shot outside a local bar.</p>

<p>After leaving home, Richard was welcomed by a white family the owned a club in Macon. He started performing there; Richard spent the rest of his childhood days in church activities because his grandfather and two uncles were preachers. He got very involved in singing, and eventually, he started learning how to play the piano.</p>

<h2>Personal Life</h2>

<p>Audrey Robinson, a sixteen-year-old college student from Savannah, Georgia, became Richard's girlfriend in 1956. Despite Robinson's dislike of rock & roll music, Richard and Robinson immediately became friends. In his 1984 book, Richard claimed that he asked other men to have sexual relations with her in groups and that he once invited <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Holly">Buddy Holly</a> to have sex with her; Robinson refuted both accusations. Richard proposed to Robinson, but she turned him down. Robinson eventually changed her name to Lee Angel and worked as a dancer and socialite. In the 1960s, Richard reconciled with Robinson, but she left him after his heroin addiction intensified. Robinson was questioned for Richard's 1985 documentary on <em>The South Bank Show</em>, and as the interview progressed, he refuted Richard's accusations. According to Robinson, Richard would use her to buy meals in white-only fast food restaurants because he couldn't go into any because of his skin tone.</p>

<p>In October 1957, Richard met his only wife, Ernestine Harvin, at an evangelical assembly. They started dating that year and married in California on July 12, 1959. Harvin claims that she and Richard had a pleasant marriage with "normal" sexual encounters at first. Harvin stated that her husband's celebrity status had made things challenging for her when the marriage ended in divorce in 1964. Richard would say that the marriage fell apart because he was a bad <a href="/biography/little-richard">husband</a> and his sexuality. Richard claimed they didn't know he was gay since he was "such a <a href="/biography/little-richard">pumper</a> in those days," and both Robinson and Harvin denied it. After their marriage, Richard and Harvin adopted <a href="/biography/danny-jones">Danny Jones</a>, a one-year-old <a href="/biography/danny-jones">boy</a>, from a deceased church acquaintance. Richard and his son had a tight relationship, with <a href="/biography/danny-jones">Jones</a> frequently serving as one of Richard's bodyguards. On March 23, 1975, Ernestine married Mcdonald Campbell in Santa Barbara, California.<strong> </strong></p>

<h2>Career and Net Worth</h2>

<p>Richard got the stage name Little Richard in the rock 'n' roll era of the 1950s. With his dazzling screams, wails, and croons, Richard turned songs like 'Long Tall Sally' and 'Tutti Frutti' into great hits and influenced bands like the Beatles.</p>

<p>Besides singing and playing the piano, Little Richard appeared in films like '<em>The Girl Can't Help It (1957)</em>, '<em>Don't Knock the Rock (1956),</em> and '<em>Mister Rock' n' Roll (1957)</em>. Even though he became famous in the rock music world, Richard felt more drawn towards the church, and in 1957, he publicly announced that he quit performing music. He became committed to ministry and started recording gospel songs. In 1959, his first religious album, '<em>God is Real</em>,' was released.</p>

<p>In 1964, Little Richard once again entered the rock music world, and by 1993, he became the recipient of the prestigious Pioneer Award of the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. The iconic star has been acclaimed with several rewards, among them awards in his lengthy career. Richard was able to make it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, The Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, Apollo Theatre Hall of Fame and, the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame. In 2012, Little Richard's song <em>Tutti Frutti </em>was declared the most inspired rock lyric by Rolling Stone Magazine.</p>

<p>In 2020, his net worth was estimated to be $40 million.</p>

<h2>Health</h2>

<p>Richard's lifestyle was a mixture of cocaine and parties until one day he became ill, and the doctor suspected that he had stomach cancer. Though it was not cancer, Richard felt that this lifestyle needed to change, so he participated in church activities.</p>

<p>In 2009, Richard underwent hip surgery, but he still does live shows occasionally. In 2012, he fell ill once again in Washington D.C. and suffered a bad heart attack. He attributed getting over the attack to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus">Jesus</a>' presence in his life that brought him through.</p>

<p>On Saturday, May 9, 2020, he died at the age of 87. His son Danny Jones Penniman said that his father died of cancer but didn't disclose the location of the death.</p>

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