Business & brands / Music / City history
Esther Gordy Edwards
1920–2011 · Motown executive, founder of the Motown Museum
Berry Gordy's eldest sister, a Motown executive who organized the Motortown Revue and in 1985 turned Hitsville U.S.A. into the Motown Museum.
- Born
Washington County, Georgia- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 91- Birth name
- Esther Gordy
- Also known as
- Mother of Motown
- Detroit years
- 1922–2011
- Field
- Business & brands, Music, City history
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Esther Gordy was two when her parents moved the family from Georgia to Detroit. She attended Cass Technical High School, graduated from Howard University, and in the 1940s started the Gordy Printing Company with two brothers. She also managed the family savings fund, the Ber-Berry Co-op, which in 1959 lent her brother Berry $800 to launch his record company. At Motown she handled management and tour booking, organized the Motortown Revue package tours from 1962, and in the mid-1960s served as vice president; she looked after many of the label's teenage artists. Married to Detroit politician George Edwards, she later sat on the boards of the Bank of the Commonwealth and the Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce. When Motown left for Los Angeles she kept the West Grand Boulevard studio intact, and in 1985 she opened it as the Motown Museum, which she led for decades.
Highlights
- Managed the family fund that lent Berry Gordy $800 to start Motown (1959)
- Organized the Motortown Revue tours from 1962
- Motown vice president in the mid-1960s
- Founded the Motown Museum at Hitsville U.S.A. in 1985
- Michigan Women's Hall of Fame (2022, posthumously)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1962–2011
Motown Museum
She had an office in the Hitsville complex from 1962 and opened the building as the Motown Museum in 1985.
Studied here · 1930s
Cass Technical High School
She attended Cass Tech before Howard University.