Personal Life
Knight has been married four times and given birth to three children. In 1960, Knight married her high school sweetheart, James Newman. Gladys gave birth to their son, James (1962–1999). She retired from the road to raise the child while The Pips toured on their own. After giving birth in 1963 to a daughter, Kenya, Knight returned to recording with the Pips in order to support her family. Newman and Knight divorced in 1973. She lived in Detroit neighborhood (Sherwood Forest), and her children attended Gesu Catholic Grade School. She married producer and Blackground Records founder Barry Hankerson, who is the uncle of the late R&B singer Aaliyah, in 1974. They had one son, Shanga Hankerson, and divorced in 1981. She married motivational speaker Les Brown in 1995, but they separated and divorced in 1997. Also in 1997, she was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, following her son and daughter. Knight married current husband, William McDowell, in 2001. They have sixteen grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
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—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)
“The true poem is not that which the public read. There is always a poem not printed on paper,... in the poet’s life. It is what he has become through his work. Not how is the idea expressed in stone, or on canvas or paper, is the question, but how far it has obtained form and expression in the life of the artist. His true work will not stand in any prince’s gallery.”
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