648 Martha (1941- ) and the Vandellas “(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave” 1963

Martha Reeves “was one of eleven children of Elijah Joshua and Ruby Lee (Gilmore) Reeves. When she was an infant, the family relocated to Detroit, settling on the city’s eas side. Reeve’s grandfather was a minister at Detroit’s Metropolitan Church, where she began singing in the choir at age three. At Northeastern High School Reeves sang in the choir and took voice lessons from Abraham Silver, who also coached future Motown stars Florence Ballard and Marry Wilson of the Supremes and Bobby Rogers of the Miracles” (Deborah Ring, Contemporary Black Biography, 2011). 

Martha and the Vandellas “(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave”