Ray Charles Robinson Jr. was a child when he walked through the house on Southridge Avenue one evening looking for a goodnight kiss from his father. He opened the door to the home office and found Ray Charles on the floor. A heroin needle. A severed artery. Blood spreading toward the door. He screamed for his mother. Della came. She got her husband to a doctor. Ray was out on bail for drug possession at the time.
Ray Jr. put this scene in his memoir, published by Penguin Random House in 2010. His mother’s name did not appear in any press account afterward. It never did, across 22 years of marriage to one of the most covered musicians in American history.
That was not oversight. That was Della Beatrice Howard Robinson.
| Born | 1929, Los Angeles, California |
|---|---|
| Known As | Bea |
| Profession | Gospel singer |
| Married Ray Charles | April 5, 1955 |
| Divorced | 1977 |
| Sons | Ray Charles Robinson Jr., David Robinson, Robert Robinson |
| Played By | Kerry Washington, Ray (2004) |
| Lives | Riverside County, California (private) |
Table of Contents
Who Is Della Beatrice Howard Robinson?
Della Beatrice Howard Robinson, known to Ray Charles simply as “Bea,” was born in 1929 in Los Angeles, California, and raised in Texas. A gospel singer by trade, she met Ray Charles in Texas in 1954 and married him on April 5, 1955. Together they had three sons: Ray Charles Robinson Jr. (born 1955), David Robinson (born 1958), and Robert Robinson (born 1960). She filed for divorce in 1977 after 22 years of marriage and has lived privately in Riverside County, California, ever since. She has never given a public interview.
A Gospel Singer Before She Was Anyone’s Wife
Most biographical coverage of Della opens with Ray Charles. Her own life had started years before he arrived.
By the time Ray crossed her path in Texas in 1954, she was already a known presence in Houston gospel circles. Ray Charles Robinson Jr. confirmed this in his Penguin Random House memoir You Don’t Know Me: Reflections of My Father, Ray Charles: it was his mother’s “amazing voice as a gospel singer” that first attracted his father to her. She had been working as a singer in churches, at concerts, and on radio well before Ray Charles showed up in Texas with an Atlantic Records contract.
Houston’s gospel scene in those years was producing serious music. Brother Cecil Shaw, a Houston-based gospel artist who recorded 18 sides for the Duke and Excello labels between 1952 and 1954, was someone Ray Charles publicly admired. Collectors’ Choice Music, on the release of Shaw’s compiled recordings, noted that Ray Charles was “a big fan of Shaw.” Della operated inside that same world, building her name in the same Houston churches and concert halls.
Ray Charles met her at a performance in 1954. He pursued her. After a year of courtship, they married on April 5, 1955, in a small, private ceremony.
The House at 4863 Southridge Avenue
Their first son, Ray Charles Robinson Jr., was born on May 25, 1955, weeks after the wedding. Ray Charles was not there. He was performing a show in Texas. David followed in 1958, Robert in 1960.
The family settled at 4863 Southridge Avenue in View Park, California. View Park, nicknamed the “Black Beverly Hills,” was by the 1960s one of the most prestigious African-American neighbourhoods in the United States. Black professionals, entertainers, and athletes had moved there after the Supreme Court’s 1948 ruling struck down racially restrictive housing covenants, often against outright hostility from white residents already there. Ike and Tina Turner lived in the area. Debbie Allen had a home nearby. In 2016, View Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places, recognised as one of the largest federal historic districts tied to African-American heritage in the country. The LA Conservancy lists Ray Charles among its most notable residents.
From the address, the house carried all the right appearances. What Della was managing inside it was a different matter.
The Marriage Ray Charles Could Not Keep Together
Ray Charles had been using heroin since 1948. He wrote about it himself in Brother Ray: Ray Charles’ Own Story, his 1978 autobiography co-written with journalist David Ritz, and acknowledged plainly that the addiction had weighed on Della throughout their marriage. He was arrested for drug possession in 1964, entered St. Francis Hospital in Los Angeles for rehabilitation, and received five years’ probation.
The night his young son found him bleeding on the office floor, incapacitated by heroin, is documented in Ray Jr.’s memoir and was reported on by Atlanta Magazine during the book’s 2010 press tour. The boy screamed for Della. She came. Ray was out on bail at the time.
The affairs ran alongside the addiction, and Ray Charles did not keep them quiet in his autobiography. They were recorded by name:
- Margie Hendricks, one of the original Raelettes: a six-year relationship that produced a son, Charles Wayne, born in 1959
- Mae Mosley Lyles, also a Raelette: a relationship that produced a daughter, Renee, born in 1961
- Mary Ann Fisher, another vocalist in Ray’s touring world, also documented
Ray Jr. wrote in his memoir that “drug use, his womanizing, and the paternity suits levelled against him constantly threatened the stability of the Robinson home.” His mother, he wrote, “exhibited incredible resilience and inner strength.”
She raised three sons through all of it. She did not speak to any reporter during the marriage. Not during the arrests. Not during the affairs. Not during any of it.
The 1977 Divorce
Della filed for divorce in 1977. Twenty-two years after the wedding. Ray Charles acknowledged in Brother Ray that his addiction had cost her considerably. Beyond that, the specific terms of their legal separation were kept out of the public record entirely. No financial disclosures were made. No press statements were issued from either side. A figure of $15 million is repeated across numerous websites, but no authenticated source has confirmed it. The details have stayed private.
She moved to Riverside County after the divorce. She never remarried.
Her Sons, the Biopic, and the Story They Tell Without Her
Ray Charles died on June 10, 2004, at his Beverly Hills home, of acute liver disease. He was 73. His funeral took place eight days later at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, drawing Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Little Richard, and Clint Eastwood, among others.
Rev. Robert Robinson Sr., Della’s youngest son, who had become a minister, was photographed in that church standing alongside Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Four months after Ray died, the biopic Ray opened on October 29, 2004. Directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Jamie Foxx, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor, it put the Robinson family’s private life before a worldwide audience. Kerry Washington played Della. Critics at multiple publications specifically cited her performance as one of the film’s strongest. Ray Charles Robinson Jr. had co-produced the film. He had a hand in how his mother was depicted on screen in front of millions of people.
Six years after that, in 2010, Ray Jr. published his memoir. The first chapter was titled “Mother.” It opened with a Ray Charles lyric: There’ll be hard times. During the book’s press tour, he stood at the Fulton County Library in Atlanta and spoke publicly about the woman who raised him, on the sixth anniversary of his father’s death.
His mother was not at the library. She had not responded to the biopic. She did not respond to the memoir. She had not spoken publicly about any of it.
Ray Jr. has spent his adult career building his mother a public record. She has spent those same years making no contribution to it.
Where Is Della Beatrice Howard Robinson Today?
As of April 2026, Della Beatrice Howard Robinson is approximately 96 or 97 years old. She is believed to be living in Riverside County, California. No social media presence exists. No verified interview, statement, or public appearance has been recorded at any point since her 1977 divorce.
Every person who was close to Ray Charles eventually produced something for the public record. His musicians, his managers, his other children, the women named in his autobiography. The legal disputes over his estate and the Ray Charles Foundation generated years of coverage and court filings well into the 2000s. His longtime manager, Joe Adams, retained significant control over the estate after Ray’s death, sparking disputes with several of his children. All of that played out publicly, because that is what proximity to fame tends to produce.
Della produced nothing.
She had the biopic. The memoir her eldest son wrote in her honour. The death of her famous ex-husband and the months of global coverage that followed. She had, in full, every conventional reason someone in her position eventually goes public. She did not.
| Trigger for Going Public | Della’s Response |
|---|---|
| 22-year marriage to a global music icon | No memoir, no interviews |
| 2004 biopic depicting her life on screen | No press statement, no appearances |
| Son’s Penguin Random House memoir, 2010 | No public comment |
| Ray Charles’s death and worldwide obituaries | Silence |
| Nearly 50 years of accumulated history | Nothing on record |
Ray Jr. titled his first chapter “Mother.” He opened with There’ll be hard times. That book has been in print since 2010. Della Beatrice Howard Robinson has not said a word about it publicly. She has not said a word about any part of this story, in nearly 50 years. At 96 or 97 years old, she remains the one person inside Ray Charles’s history who has never seen fit to explain herself to anyone.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Della Beatrice Howard Robinson?
Born in 1929, she is approximately 96 or 97 years old as of April 2026.
Is Della Beatrice Howard Robinson still alive?
She is believed to be alive and living privately in Riverside County, California, as of 2026. No recent public confirmation of her status has been reported.
Who played Della Beatrice Howard Robinson in the Ray Charles movie?
Kerry Washington portrayed her in the 2004 biographical film Ray, directed by Taylor Hackford. The film was released on October 29, 2004, four months after Ray Charles died in June of that year.
Why did Ray Charles and Della Beatrice Howard Robinson divorce?
The marriage ended in 1977. In his 1978 autobiography Brother Ray, Ray Charles acknowledged his heroin addiction had taken a heavy toll on Della. The divorce followed years of drug addiction, multiple documented extramarital affairs, and associated paternity suits.
How many children did Della Beatrice Howard Robinson have?
Three sons with Ray Charles: Ray Charles Robinson Jr. (born May 25, 1955), David Robinson (born 1958), and Robert Robinson (born 1960). Robert later became Rev. Robert Robinson Sr., a minister.
Sources: Wikipedia (Ray Charles); Ray Charles Robinson Jr. with Mary Jane Ross, You Don’t Know Me: Reflections of My Father, Ray Charles (Harmony Books / Penguin Random House, 2010); Atlanta Magazine; Ray Charles and David Ritz, Brother Ray: Ray Charles’ Own Story (Da Capo Press, 1978); National Register of Historic Places, View Park Historic District Nomination; Los Angeles Public Library; Los Angeles Conservancy; Gospel Music Haus and Museum; Collectors’ Choice Music; IMDb; Rotten Tomatoes; Rolling Stone; Getty Images.
