Remembering Esther Gordy Edwards, the mother of Motown

Sister to Berry Gordy, founder of the Motown Museum, and described as the record label's "founding mother," Esther Gordy Edwards passed away last week at age 91. Edwards, who kept the books and lights on while Gordy chased talent and limelight, stayed in Detroit to build the Motown Museum after Gordy moved to L.A. And, as Motown chronicler Mark Ribowsky notes, it was Edwards who brought polish and sophistication to the burgeoning business.

Excerpt:

Ribowsky says Esther Gordy wanted to make sure the Motown artists had what few black performers had before: dignity. "She wanted to turn these ghetto teenagers into polished young men and women, you know, walk around with a book on their head so to speak," he says. "To teach them poise and sophistication, and hired choreographers to teach them how to dance on stage. And she'd go out on tour and lay the law down about being proper men and women, and not sullying the name of Motown, even though at the time Motown really had no name."

Read more (and remember) here.