Businesswoman and record company executive. Helped build the famed Motown Records company alongside her brother Berry Gordy Jr. and led efforts to turn its original Detroit headquarters into a museum. She served as senior vice president, corporate secretary and director of Motown International Operations. Edwards was a Motown executive for nearly three decades, holding numerous leadership positions within the music company whose artists included Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and The Four Tops. Motown Records, which Berry Gordy started with a family loan in 1959, churned out scores of global hits from the building it dubbed "Hitsville, U.S.A." in Detroit. The company moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Edwards served as senior vice president, corporate secretary and director of Motown International Operations, where she was charged with exposing the famed "Motown sound" to international audiences. She is credited with managing and guiding the careers of Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and others. Edwards was the eldest daughter in a family of eight children born in Georgia and moved to Detroit as a toddler. She first married Robert Bullock, with whom she had a son. She later married state Rep. George Edwards and became a step mother to his son. One of her sisters, Anna Gordy Gaye, was Marvin Gaye's first wife. Edwards died at age 91.
Businesswoman and record company executive. Helped build the famed Motown Records company alongside her brother Berry Gordy Jr. and led efforts to turn its original Detroit headquarters into a museum. She served as senior vice president, corporate secretary and director of Motown International Operations. Edwards was a Motown executive for nearly three decades, holding numerous leadership positions within the music company whose artists included Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and The Four Tops. Motown Records, which Berry Gordy started with a family loan in 1959, churned out scores of global hits from the building it dubbed "Hitsville, U.S.A." in Detroit. The company moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Edwards served as senior vice president, corporate secretary and director of Motown International Operations, where she was charged with exposing the famed "Motown sound" to international audiences. She is credited with managing and guiding the careers of Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and others. Edwards was the eldest daughter in a family of eight children born in Georgia and moved to Detroit as a toddler. She first married Robert Bullock, with whom she had a son. She later married state Rep. George Edwards and became a step mother to his son. One of her sisters, Anna Gordy Gaye, was Marvin Gaye's first wife. Edwards died at age 91.
