Alberta Gay
 |
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| Alberta Williams Cooper Gaye | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 1, 1913 Rocky Mount, North Carolina |
| Died | May 9, 1987 (aged 74) Los Angeles, California |
| Occupation | domestic, teacher |
| Spouse | Marvin Gay, Sr. (1914–1998); (1935–1984) (divorced) |
| Children | Michael (born 1933) Jeanne Gay (b. 1937) Marvin Gaye (1939–1984) Frankie Gaye (1941–2001) Zeola "Sweetsie" Gaye (b. 1945) |
Alberta Cooper Gay (January 1, 1913 – May 9, 1987) was the mother of influential Motown singer-songwriter Marvin Gaye and singer-songwriter Frankie Gaye, wife of minister Marvin Gay, Sr. and the grandmother of singer-actress Nona Gaye. Gay was the only other witness to be present on the day of her son Marvin's sudden death at his father's hands.
[edit] Biography
Born in North Carolina, Cooper eventually moved to Washington, D.C. with a relative after having a son out of wedlock. Her son, Michael, ended up being raised by relatives in D.C. Around this time she met a young minister from Kentucky named Marvin Pentz Gay. The couple married on July 2, 1935 and Cooper gave birth to her first child with her husband, a daughter named Jeanne, born in 1937. Two years later, on April 2, 1939, son Marvin Gay, Jr. was born. Alberta later gave birth to two more children, son Frances (or Frankie) in 1941 and daughter Zeola (nicknamed "Sweetsie") in 1945. Alberta and the elder Marvin raised their four children under the strict rules governing a Seventh Day Adventist home.
The Gay family reportedly had a rough upbringing while growing up in the D.C. projects. Since "Father Gay" didn't have a steady job, Alberta found work as both a domestic and as a teacher of a local elementary school. According to biographies written about Marvin Gaye, Alberta reportedly had to stop her husband from further disciplining his four children, the younger Marvin in particular, who later grew up and adapted a rebellious attitude in a way to go against his father's strict rules. Alberta said she also encouraged the young Marvin to pursue his later dreams of a secular singing career despite his father's strict refusal to allow his son to participate in such activity.
After leaving home to join The Moonglows in 1959, Marvin later adapted an e to his last name upon joining Motown Records as a soloist eventually rising to fame as the label's best-selling male vocalist during the 1960s and 1970s. Throughout the years, Marvin kept a close bond with his mother, with whom Jeanne Gay later called, a "spiritual guru" to Marvin saying that she'd always allowed Marvin to express his inner demons to her. Marvin later moved his parents to Los Angeles. Alberta's marriage to Marvin Sr. had always been contentious and sometimes abusive. Marvin Sr. constantly cheated on her and would often commit domestic abuse against her. In late 1982, Alberta was rushed to a California hospital to undergo surgery on a new kidney which caused her son Marvin, who had moved to Belgium after problems with the IRS had mounted, to abruptly return to California to tend to his mother. Marvin also had a hit record at the time and a punishing tour left him sapped especially, after a brief sobriety period while in Belgium, with strong usage of cocaine, a drug Marvin had been using off and on since the late 1960s.
Moving in with his mother at the end of his tour in 1983, Marvin isolated himself from everyone while trying to keep a distance from his father, during rows the two had. After the former minister Marvin Sr. had developed alcoholism, his relationship with Alberta had grown worse and the couple were constantly arguing, much to the chagrin of their son, who was having his own marital and domestic troubles with girlfriends and one of his ex-wives.
[edit] Son's death
On the night of March 31, 1984, Alberta and Marvin, Sr. began arguing over misplaced business documents, including an important insurance policy, which Alberta later claimed Marvin Sr. had blamed directly on her. The argument escalated causing Gaye to wake up from a drug stupor arguing to his father to leave his mother alone. The two men didn't escalate into violence that night. The next morning, April 1, 1984, Alberta and Marvin Sr. began arguing again when Gaye again addressed his father. This time, a struggle ensued and a physical fight resulted in Marvin Sr. being pushed and kicked at by his son. Alberta told the police that she got Gaye out of his father's bedroom and tried consoling her son, who reportedly told her that he was "packing my stuff and getting out of here, Father hates me and I'm never coming back." Alberta then said she saw her husband calmly walk in with a .38 pistol that Marvin had ironically purchased for his father during Christmas of the previous year and shoot her son directly in the chest fatally wounding Gaye. Alberta screamed and called for help from her son Frankie and his wife Irene, who heard the shots next door. Gaye was later pronounced dead and following a funeral, where Alberta kissed her son's forehead at his casket, she filed for divorce from Marvin Sr., who later served probation after pleading no contest to a manslaughter charge in his son's death. Later moving in with her daughter Jeanne in her home in Burbank, Cooper died in 1987 of bone cancer. She was 74 years old.
