The Velvelettes: Acclaimed 1960 s Motown group got their start at Western Michigan University fox17online.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from fox17online.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
KALAMAZOO, Mich. It all started with the keys. Music is my life. It still is and it was when I was a kid, says
Bertha Barbee-McNeal, co-founder of legendary Motown group The Velvelettes. At 9 years old, she remembers, I would sit on my curb (in Flint, Michigan), and I would listen to this gal play the piano. My parents let me take lessons, and I would walk four of five blocks every day … I don t think I missed a lesson until I was 22.
That passion for piano is what led Barbee-McNeal to Kalamazoo in the early 1960s. She was already an accomplished classical pianist when an organist from her father s church recommended she pursue a music degree at his alma mater Western Michigan University.