Mavis Staples was born in the United States on July 10, 1939. She is a gospel and rhythm and blues singer, actress, and civil rights activist. She rose to fame as a member of her family’s band, The Staple Singers (she is the last surviving member of that band).
While a member of the group, she produced the hit songs “I’ll Take You There” and “Let’s Do It Again.” In 1969, Staples recorded her first album under her name. The Staples were dubbed “God’s Greatest Hitmakers” and included the guitar playing of family patriarch Roebuck “Pops” Staples as well as singing by Mavis, her siblings Cleotha, Yvonne, and Pervis.
Mavis Staples siblings: Meet Cleotha Staples, Pervis Staples, Yvonne Staples
Mavis Staples shares her parents with her three siblings namely Cleotha Staples, Pervis Staples, and Yvonne Staples. From our findings, Cleotha Staples was born in a tiny Mississippi village. Her father worked in several jobs before deciding that music was his true calling. By copying legendary blues players like Charley Patton and Howlin’ Wolf, he learned how to play the guitar.
Roebuck, his wife Oceola, and the two-year-old Cleotha moved to Chicago from the north in 1936, following his sister and brother. The family already had five children by the time Pops instructed Cleotha and her siblings in the complex harmony of traditional gospel music in the late 1940s. After graduating from the city’s Doolittle School, Cleotha, sometimes known as Cleo or Cleedi, pursued dressmaking studies at the Dunbar Trade School. She would later design stage outfits for the Staple Singers.
Pervis Staples sang gospel music in Chicago churches with his father, musician Roebuck “Pops” Staples, and the sisters Mavis, Yvonne, and Cleotha before starting to record songs for Vee-Jay records in the 1950s. “So Soon,” “If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again,” “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” and “Uncloudy Day” were some of the tracks on this playlist.
Mavis Staples’ sister Pervis Staples’ representative Adam Ayers reports that Pervis Staples passed away on May 6 at his residence in Dalton, Illinois. What led to the death wasn’t made clear.
Yvonne Staples was the third of Pops Staples’ five children, and she was born on a sharecroppers farm in Mississippi before the family moved to the South Side of Chicago. While taking lessons on Dockery Farm from blues great Charley Patton, Pops Staples began playing the guitar and singing in gospel quartets. He merged the two genres when he taught his daughters, Pervis, Cleotha, Yvonne, and Mavis, how to sing gospel harmonies in the family’s living room. (Cynthia was unable to join the family because she was born later.)
The reluctant singer in the Staple Singers was Yvonne Staples, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 80. She preferred to play a supporting role and only sang when her father, Roebuck “Pops” Staples, requested it. She nonetheless had a significant role in her younger sister Mavis Staples’ late-blooming solo career during Staples’ most financially successful period, which included hits like “I’ll Take You There” and “Respect Yourself.” Amid her family’s greatest need, she proved to be a rock.
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Source: celebfaqs.com
