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Mable John

Mable John

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Mable John (born November 3, 1930) is an American blues vocalist and was the first female signed by Berry Gordy to Motown's Tamla label.

John was born in Bastrop, Louisiana, the eldest of at least nine siblings. At a very young age, she and her parents moved north into Arkansas, where her father got a job in a paper mill near Cullendale, where four of Mable's brothers (including R&B singer Little Willie John) and two sisters were born.

In 1941, after her father was able to secure a better job, the family moved to Detroit, where two additional brothers were born. She attended Cleveland Intermediate School, and then Pershing High School. After graduating, she took a job as an insurance representative at Friendship Mutual Insurance Agency, a company run by Berry Gordy's mother, Bertha.

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