By day, Abney sold peanuts as a street vendor, enlisting his children to help. Her singing voicemail messages are just one way she takes after her daddy. He also cooked up steak sandwiches, sweet potato pies and other soul foods he could hawk on the streets of Detroit.
At the end of the day, the Peanut Man would head out for his second job at a factory. People loved to hear our family sing. Loss of a father. Etterline was just At 17, Etterlene and her twin sister were hanging out at their favorite place, the roller rink, when she met an Army soldier named Robert Barnes.
When she called the nearby Army base to talk to him, whoever answered the phone misunderstood and gave the phone to Robert DeBarge. The rest, as they say, is history, an ugly saga of abuse and control. Bessie Abney tried to advise her daughter.
Soon after the couple married, the young bride found out her groom had a dark side, only hinted at during their short courtship. From the start, Robert DeBarge physically and emotionally abused her, Etterlene said, and controlled her by making sure she was vulnerable. Living a nightmare. Robert battered the children, too, especially Bobby. As often as she could, Mama D took the beatings for her children. I was extremely fearful of him. We all thought it was a nightmare. With little money and 10 children, DeBarge packed her bags and left Robert.
She bought an upright piano, which she paid for in installments, and the family thrived in the rich gospel music tradition at Bethel. My brothers mentored and loved my children. James Abney taught El how to play chords. Then came the tremendously popular music group DeBarge, which originally consisted of siblings El, Bunny, Marty, and Randy, and was later joined by brothers James and Bobby.
An eighth DeBarge, Chico, made waves as a solo act but was considered a part of the larger DeBarge constellation. In short, it was a big family. However, their personal lives have been defined by discord.
Between their struggles with addiction, the crimes they suffered and committed, and the soap-opera-like drama they created, the DeBarges were like a reality-TV version of Requiem for a Dream , only more depressing. According to their mother Etterlene above , the DeBarge siblings had music in their blood. Speaking with MLive , the matriarch recalled that her father, a choir director, was a deeply talented and entertaining musician.
One of 11 children herself, Etterlene would have 10 kids, most of whom became famous musicians in the s. Etterlene met Robert shortly after her father died. She was 17 and romantically inexperienced. Robert was four years older, in the army, and white, which made him socially forbidden fruit.
Unfortunately, he was also "insanely jealous," according to Etterlene, and ordered her not to wear jewelry, makeup, or anything else that might attract another man. After a hasty wedding, things rapidly went downhill. Etterlene said Robert tormented her physically and emotionally, even keeping her "continuously pregnant. Etterlene's children had horrific memories of their father.
Bobby allegedly took the bulk of the abuse, but all the children suffered. Bunny would blame the siblings' professional woes and personal struggles on the ugliness they endured as children. Robert Sr. It's easy to spot similarities between the DeBarges and the Jacksons yes, those Jacksons. Eight of the 10 DeBarge siblings had music careers while all nine Jacksons had solo hits. Heck, he kind of sounded like Michael with a slight cold.
As the Michael of the group, El received special treatment from Motown architect Berry Gordy, who saw El as a budding solo artist. But the prospect of being split up "was very painful" for the close-knit siblings, according to their mother. However, in a interview with the LA Times , El seemed to remember things a little differently, explaining, "I wanted to move out of the group and give the others some creative space.
El officially started dancing to his own drum beat after DeBarge released Rhythm of the Night , but he stumbled out of the gate. Previously hailed as the creative soul of DeBarge, he did zero writing or producing for his first solo album, plainly titled El DeBarge. He blamed his lack of involvement on a failed romance, but it wasn't his only source of sadness.
El felt lonely without his siblings. In a interview with the LA Times , El DeBarge made a weirdly unsettling admission: "There are these personalities in me, so many of them. In El pleaded no-contest to causing a misdemeanor disturbance after a Michigan woman accused him of attacking her. As reported by Jet , the year-old singer had allegedly "pulled her hair, dragged her to the floor, and hit her" when she refused his advances at a hotel.
That's not even a slap on the wrist for a wealthy musician — more like a wrist massage. In the singer found himself in handcuffs again, this time for possible domestic violence. Afterward, El's more peaceful personalities appeared to take over, but in TMZ revealed he tried to settle an argument by arming himself with a wrench and chasing a dude. The dude, who wanted no part of El or his wrench, fled to an RV, at which point El bashed in the vehicle's windshield.
He was charged with felony vandalism. Far too often in life, we're forced to choose between career success and personal happiness. As People detailed , in Janet Ms.
Jackson, if you're nasty eloped with James DeBarge above. But her manager wanted to cultivate the image of nasty Janet, not a carnally unavailable married woman. Plus, Janet's family wasn't exactly thrilled about the union, which caught them off guard. Not everyone seemed startled by the elopement. In fact, Jermaine Jackson helped at least six different DeBarges get started in the music industry. Plus, according to El, James and Janet had been seeing each other for two years and it had "all been peaches 'n' cream.
His parents were married from to when they divorced. At some point in his life, he began abusing drugs. He started using hard drugs like heroin, hydrocodone, and morphine. He was also addicted to alcohol. Due to his addiction, he went to rehab in the late s. After his diagnosis, he practiced leading a healthy life and staying happy life, and also not using any drugs in order to live a long life. His family said he had battled with kidney and liver failure for many years.
A few weeks ago, his health declined and he had to be hospitalized. His condition got worse within the last few weeks, a family member told the outlet.
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