Theodore DeReese Pendergrass
(March 26, 1950 – January 13, 2010)
He was an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter. He was born in Kingstree, South Carolina. Pendergrass lived most of his life in the Philadelphia area, and initially rose to musical fame as the lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. After leaving the group in 1976, Pendergrass launched a successful solo career under the Philadelphia International label, releasing five consecutive platinum albums (a record at the time for an African-American R&B artist). Pendergrass’s career was suspended after a March 1982 car crash left him paralyzed from the waist down. Pendergrass continued his successful solo career until announcing his retirement in 2007.
Pendergrass had three children: Tisha, LaDonna, and Theodore Jr.
Pendergrass’s manager and girlfriend Taazmayia “Taaz” Lang was shot dead on the doorstep of her home in April 1977. The murder remains unsolved, although Philadelphia’s Black Mafia has been suspected, as they allegedly resented Lang’s control over Pendergrass’s lucrative career.
In June 1987, Pendergrass married a former Philadanco dancer named Karen Still, who had also danced in his shows. They divorced in 2002.
Pendergrass published his autobiography, Truly Blessed, with Patricia Romanowski in 1998 ][failed verification][full citation needed
In the spring of 2006, Pendergrass met Joan Williams. He proposed to her after four months, and they married in a private ceremony officiated by his pastor, Alyn Waller of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church, on Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008. A formal wedding was celebrated at The Ocean Cliff Resort in Newport, Rhode Island, on September 6, 2008. As members of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church, Joan Pendergrass set up The Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church Youth Fund in the name of Pendergrass to provide assistance and a center for Philadelphia’s inner city youth.
On June 5, 2009, Pendergrass underwent successful surgery for colon cancer and returned home to recover. A few weeks later he returned to the hospital with respiratory issues. After seven months, he died of respiratory failure on January 13, 2010, with his wife Joan by his side, at Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He was 59. His body was interred at the West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
As of 2015 there are plans to make a feature film biopic of Pendergrass’s life, and Tyrese Gibson is set to star as the late singer. In 2020, Essence Magazine wrote that Gibson reached out to Lee Daniels to produce the film.
In 2019, BBC Film made a documentary on Pendergrass’s life titled If You Don’t Know Me. It was released February 8 on Showtime
Teddy Pendergrass died from respiratory failure in January 2010.