Rita had son Ziggy with her at the time, with her daughters staying with her aunt, but she decided to go home to Jamaica after giving birth to son Stephen Marley in 1972. In the early 1970s, Rita returned to her mother-in-law’s home in the US, to live and work, hoping to improve her family’s financial situation. They spent some time in the United States, working for singer Johnny Nash’s JAD Records in the late 1960s and living with Bob’s mother in Wilmington, Delaware, for a time. Rita and Bob struggled both financially and professionally. The following year, the couple had their first son, David, who is now best known as Ziggy Marley. They welcomed their first child together, daughter Cedella, in 1967. What was at first a purely professional relationship between Rita and Bob took a new turn one day when Bunny Wailer gave Rita a handwritten love note from Bob. Rita also had a few solo hits of her own, most notably Pied Piper. The Soulettes scored several hits under Bob’s leadership, and had a hit with the song I Love You, Baby, and sometimes sang backup on some of the Wailers’ early recordings. The eighteen-year-old singer succeeded at the audition and was joined with her cousin, Constantine “Dream” Walker, and friend, Marlene “Precious” Gifford the trio became known as the Soulettes, with Bob Marley as their producer. “I remember how I would scream to hear his songs on the radio,” Rita Marley told Interview.Īn aspiring singer herself, Rita asked the group to set up an audition with Dodd for her. Bob Marley, already a standout talent, made a special impact. The Wailers consisted of Bob Marley, Peter McIntosh (later Peter Tosh) and Bunny Livingston (later Bunny Wailer) they were among the first acts to record at the influential studio of producer Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, who ran the Studio One record label. Three of those musicians, who had formed a trio called the Wailers, often passed by the metal shack where Rita was living with her aunt and small child. Kingston, Jamaica has spawned the careers of many of the musicians who created a rhythmically complex, spiritually inclined new music called reggae. She had her first child, a daughter named Sharon, in 1964. After high school, Rita attended the Bethesda School of Practical Nursing, but an unexpected pregnancy derailed her education. When she was just 13, Rita was left in her aunt’s care when her father moved to England to look for work (he reportedly told her that she would join him later, but that move never happened). Their mother raised their other brother, Donovan. Growing up poor, she was abandoned by her mother when she was just 5 years old, Rita and her brother, Wesley, were raised by their father and an aunt Viola in the neighborhood of Trench Town, Kingston, Jamaica. Rita Marley was born Alpharita Constantia Anderson in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, on Jto Leroy Anderson and Cynthia “Beda” Jarrett.
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