One day in the early 1950s, a young woman’s voice came through the radio in Texas. She was singing a gospel song called “Pray On, My Child.” A blind piano player heard it and wanted to meet her. That woman was Della Beatrice Howard Robinson. She had no idea who he was.
That man was Ray Charles. He would soon become one of the biggest names in American music. But at that moment, she was just a gospel singer trying to pay her bills.
Most articles about Della Beatrice Howard Robinson are short. They talk about her marriage and stop there. But her real story is much bigger. Before Ray Charles, she had already lived through a lot. Two abusive marriages. A childhood without her father. A real singing career of her own.
She stayed married to Ray for 22 years. Then she left on her own terms. And for the last 50 years, she has said almost nothing in public.
There’s another problem. The websites that write about her can’t agree on the basics. Her birth year. Her birthplace. Even whether she is alive today. We’ll sort all of that out here.
In this article, we’ll walk through her childhood in Texas, her gospel music career, the two marriages that came before Ray, how they met, the years they spent together, the divorce, her three sons, and where she is now.
Who Is Della Beatrice Howard Robinson?
Her full name is Della Beatrice Howard Robinson. But nobody who knew her called her that. To friends and family, she was simply “Bea.” Ray often just called her “B.”
She was born in either 1928 or 1929. Sources don’t agree. The earlier date, 1928, seems to fit better with the rest of her life story. Most likely, she is in her mid-to-late nineties today.
She was Ray Charles’ second wife, and his only long marriage. They wed in 1955 and divorced in 1977. Together they had three sons: Ray Jr., David, and Robert.
Here’s something important. She was not a woman who married into music. She was already a working gospel singer before she met Ray. She had a group, a manager, radio play, and a recording deal. Her voice was her job.
So why is she mostly known as a footnote in someone else’s life? Because after the divorce, she made a choice. She stepped away. No interviews. No TV. No selling her story.
Privacy is the one thing she picked over everything else. She has spoken publicly only rarely, mainly through her own memoir. Everything else has been silence.
Della Beatrice Howard Robinson’s Early Life
Della Beatrice Howard Robinson was born in Richmond, Texas. It’s a small town about 15 miles southwest of Houston. Back then, only around 1,500 people lived there.
Some websites list her birthplace as Los Angeles, California. That’s almost certainly wrong. Every other detail in her story points to Texas — her school in Richmond, her move to Houston, her family’s farm, and meeting Ray in Texas. The Los Angeles claim doesn’t fit at all.
Richmond had a real history. It was known for cotton and oil. It also became a safe place for formerly enslaved families to settle after the Civil War. It was a working town, not a rich one.
Her parents never married. That mattered more than it sounds. The town reportedly had a rule that a woman who got pregnant outside of marriage was supposed to marry the father. Her parents didn’t. They never married at all.
So Bea grew up without a father in the house. She knew who he was. He just wasn’t part of her life. He was married to another woman and living in Houston with his own family.
That absence stayed with her. By her own account, it bothered her for years. And it likely shaped what she wanted later — a real family, a real home, a husband who stayed.
Life on the Farm with Uncle George and Mama Lee
Bea didn’t grow up alone. She lived in a small one-bedroom house on family farmland with her uncle George and her grandmother, who everyone called “Mama Lee.”
How big was the farm? Sources disagree here too. Some say ten acres. Others say eighty. It’s a small detail, but it’s a good example of how loose the online information about her really is.
Life on that farm was simple and busy. They grew corn, peanuts, cotton, potatoes, and other vegetables. After each harvest, they canned what they picked so it would last through the year.
They also kept animals — chickens, geese, and ducks. Because of this, food was never a worry. They didn’t have much money, but they ate as much as they wanted. Poor in cash, never hungry. That’s a real difference, and it shaped her.
She also went to school in Richmond. Education wasn’t the big priority it is now, especially for a Black girl in a small Texas town. But she went anyway, and she studied hard. Her schooling there lasted until the fourth grade.
Della’s Moving to Houston
Then everything changed. Bea left the farm and moved to Houston to live with her mother. It did not go well.
The two of them fought constantly. Her mother worked, then went out at night to party. Bea had to deal with the late nights and the noise and the fallout the next day. There wasn’t much peace in that house.
School slipped away. She dropped out completely. On top of that, she was handed the job of caring for her younger brother, James. She was still a kid herself.
At some point, it became too much. She left. She moved in with her cousin, Robert Lee, and started over.
She knew nobody was coming to rescue her. So she got a job as a waitress. That was her first real work. It was survival, plain and simple.
How Her Gospel Singing Career Started
Waitressing wasn’t enough. So Bea took a second job — singing gospel with a group at local churches. They were paid out of the collection plate. It wasn’t much money, but it was music.
Then something happened. When she was 16, a gospel singer named Cecil Shaw heard her group. He liked what he heard and decided to work with them.
Shaw took them seriously. He rehearsed with them regularly and pushed them toward a professional standard. They saved up and bought church robes. That sounds small, but it wasn’t. Suddenly they looked like a real act, not a few girls singing on a Sunday.
The work paid off. They started singing on the radio. They performed at concerts. Then they got a contract to sing at bigger churches and theaters.
After that came a recording deal. They cut songs. Her face appeared on the record covers. By the time she was out of her teens, Della Beatrice Howard Robinson was a known voice — and Ray Charles wasn’t famous yet.
Here’s the honest part. Gospel paid almost nothing back then. There was no big money in it. But she kept going anyway, because she was determined to make something of herself.
Her Two Marriages Before Ray Charles
Her first husband was a minister’s son. They were introduced after a church service. She was in her mid-twenties. She wanted a family — the kind she never had growing up. She thought he was the one.
He wasn’t. Soon after the wedding, he started hitting her. And he expected her to accept it, quietly, as part of the deal. She wouldn’t. She ended it and got divorced.
Then she tried again. Her second husband was another churchgoer. Somehow, he was worse. The abuse was more severe, and she became genuinely afraid of him.
She didn’t just leave. She ran. She went all the way to New York City to get away from him.
Here’s an important detail most articles skip. She was still legally married to that second man when she met Ray Charles. The divorce wasn’t final yet.
Two husbands had beaten her. So when Ray came along, trust wasn’t something she had left to give. That’s the woman he was actually trying to win over.
How She Met Ray Charles
Now the radio comes back into the story. Ray Charles heard Bea singing “Pray On, My Child” on the air. Something in that voice caught him, and he asked to meet her.
They met in Texas in 1954. Accounts differ on the exact setting — some say a hotel, others say a performance where she was singing. Either way, she was not impressed. She figured that was that, and she’d never see him again.
She was wrong. He kept turning up. She’d run into him on the road, then again somewhere else. It seemed like coincidence.
So what did he see in her? She was quiet and reserved. She didn’t smoke. She didn’t drink. She wasn’t part of his world at all — and that was exactly the point.
Their lives couldn’t have been more different. She sang in churches. He played clubs, lived on the road, and slept with women he barely knew. She had two failed marriages behind her and no reason to trust anyone.
But he didn’t give up. He kept at it. Eventually she let her guard down and they started dating. It was hard, since he was almost always touring. He even rented a house right next to hers in Houston to stay close.
She married Ray Charles
Then came the news that changed things fast. Bea got pregnant. She moved in with Ray, and the two of them set up a new home in South Dallas.
About eight months later, they got married. The date was April 5, 1955.
It was not a romantic wedding. There was no church and no big party. They said their vows in a back room filled with junk. A woman they had never met before read the vows to them. That was it.
Their first son arrived soon after. Ray Charles Robinson Jr. was born on May 25, 1955 — only about six weeks after the wedding. Their second son, David Robinson, came in 1958. Their third son, Robert Robinson, was born in 1960.
Once the kids came, Bea stopped singing. She gave up her own career to raise the boys. That was her choice, but it was also the reality of the life she had married into.
And what was that life like? Ray was almost never home. He was on the road constantly, playing shows across the country. She ran the house alone.
Meanwhile, his career exploded. He was mixing gospel, R&B, jazz, and blues into something nobody had heard before. He signed with Atlantic Records right around the time they met. Within a few years, he was a national star.
So she watched from the inside as her husband became a legend — while she stayed home with three boys.
Problem In Their Marriage
He had a well-known affair with Mary Ann Fisher, one of his own singers. Reports say he also began seeing two other women only a couple of years into the marriage — Margie Hendricks and Mae Mosely Lyles. Both were connected to his music world.
Drugs ran through it too. Ray was addicted to heroin for years. That addiction touched everything: his moods, his behavior, his choices, and his home life. He was arrested for it more than once before finally getting clean in the mid-1960s.
He also fathered children outside the marriage. In total, Ray had 12 children with several different women. Only three of them were Bea’s.
So how did she find out? Not from him. It came out through a court case. The family of a woman who had a child with Ray took the matter to court while he was still married to Bea.
In that case, Ray admitted he had been involved with the woman. The court ordered him to pay $400 a month in child support. Suddenly the truth was on the record, in public.
Twenty-two years is a long time to hold a marriage together under all that. Saying “he cheated” doesn’t really cover it. She lived through the affairs, the drugs, the absence, and the other children — all at once.
Della Beatrice Howard Robinson Ray Charles’ Divorce
Bea finally filed for divorce in 1976. It was finalized in 1977, ending 22 years of marriage.
Most of the settlement details stayed out of the newspapers at the time. Ray was a huge star, and both sides kept things quiet. But the main terms are known.
She kept their Southridge home. She received a cash payment reported at around a third of a million dollars. A trust fund was set up for the three boys. And she got $4,000 a month in child support.
Now think about those numbers in 1977 money. A third of a million dollars back then was a serious sum — roughly like well over a million today. The $4,000 monthly support was a strong income on its own. She was not left struggling.
But here’s the part that says the most about Della Beatrice Howard Robinson. She took the settlement and went quiet.
She could have sold her story. She could have done interviews about life with Ray Charles. Instead, she walked away and didn’t trade on his name. That was a choice, and she stuck to it.
Meet Their Children
Ray Charles Robinson Jr. was born in 1955. He’s the son who has spoken publicly about the family over the years, sharing his memories of growing up in that house.
David Robinson came in 1958. Robert Robinson, born in 1960, later became a minister and is known as Rev. Robert Robinson Sr.
Even after the divorce, the boys stayed in touch with their father. The marriage ended, but the relationship with their dad didn’t.
After his death, things got complicated. His children ended up in a dispute over his estate and his legacy. With 12 kids and a huge catalog of music, that’s not surprising — but it was still a painful chapter.
Then came the movie. The film Ray was released in 2004, with Jamie Foxx playing Ray Charles. It was a hit and won Foxx an Oscar. But it showed the marriage in ways the family had feelings about. Bea’s sons attended the Los Angeles premiere, and the film shaped how millions of people now picture her — through an actress, not her own words.
Where Is Della Beatrice Howard Robinson Now?
This is the question everyone asks. And the honest answer is: nobody really knows.
The last solid trace is from 2010. At that time, she was reported to be living in Riverside County, California, in good health. That’s it. That’s the most recent confirmed information.
Some websites list her birthplace as “Perris, California.” Perris is a city in Riverside County. That’s not her birthplace — it’s where she later lived. Someone mixed up the two, and other sites copied the mistake.
If you want her real voice, there’s one place to find it: her memoir. She told her story in a book about her life with Ray, and that’s where nearly all the detailed information in this article comes from. Everything else online is a copy of a copy.
Is Della Beatrice Howard Robinson still alive? Several sites say yes. But their reasoning is weak. They basically say, “No death has been reported, so she must be alive.”
Interesting Facts About Della Beatrice Howard Robinson
- Ray fell for her voice before he ever saw her. He heard her sing “Pray On, My Child” on the radio and asked to meet her. He was blind, so her voice was all he had — and it was enough.
- She wasn’t impressed by him at all. After their first meeting in 1954, she assumed she’d never see him again. She didn’t like his lifestyle, and she wasn’t looking.
- Those “chance” meetings were planned. She kept running into Ray on the road and thought it was coincidence. She found out much later that he had arranged every one of them.
- He rented the house next door. To stay close to her in Houston, Ray rented a place right beside hers. That’s how hard he pushed.
- She was still married to someone else when they met. Her second divorce wasn’t final yet.
- Their wedding was held in a back room full of junk. No church. No guests to speak of. A woman they had never met read them their vows.
- Their first son was born six weeks after the wedding. Ray Charles Jr. arrived on May 25, 1955. They married on April 5.
Bottom Line
She was a singer with a manager, radio play, and a record deal before she was anyone’s wife. She built that herself, starting from a waitressing job and a church collection plate.
She survived two men who beat her. Then she spent 22 years married to a third who was unfaithful and addicted. She raised three sons largely on her own while he was on the road.
When she’d had enough, she left. She took her settlement, kept her children, and kept her name out of the papers. And what did the internet do with all of that? It turned her into a fake net worth and a made-up height.
(FAQs)
Is Della Beatrice Howard Robinson still alive in 2026?
Nobody can say for sure. The last confirmed report was from 2010, when she was living in Riverside County, California. Websites claiming she’s alive have no evidence beyond the fact that no death has been reported.
Why did Della and Ray Charles divorce?
Ray was repeatedly unfaithful and was addicted to heroin for years. He fathered children outside the marriage. Bea learned the full truth through a public court case and filed for divorce in 1976.
How many children did Della Beatrice Howard Robinson have?
Three sons with Ray Charles: Ray Jr. (born 1955), David (born 1958), and Robert (born 1960). Ray Charles had 12 children in total with several women.
Was Della Beatrice Howard Robinson a singer?
Yes. She was a working gospel singer before she met Ray. She was discovered at 16 by Cecil Shaw, sang on the radio, performed at churches and concerts, and had a recording deal. She stopped singing to raise her family.
What is Della Beatrice Howard Robinson’s net worth?
The $15 million figure you’ll see online has no real source behind it. What’s actually documented is her 1977 divorce settlement: the Southridge home, roughly a third of a million dollars, a trust for the boys, and $4,000 a month in child support.
