Gladys Horton, a co-founder of the Marvelettes who helped put fledgling Motown Records on the musical map with its first No. 1 hit, “Please Mr. Postman,” has died. She was 66.
Horton died Wednesday at a nursing home in Los Angeles, where she had been recovering from a stroke, said son Vaughn Thornton.
Horton was a teenager in the Detroit suburb of Inkster when she and some friends formed a group they called the Casinyets, short for “can’t sing yet.” By the time she was 15, Motown had given the group a new name and a hit song in “Please Mr. Postman.” The tune, more pop-oriented than much of Motown’s early recordings, was later covered by the Beatles and others.
The Marvelettes also had a hit with “Beachwood 4-5789.” Other songs included “Playboy,” “Too Many Fish in the Sea” and “Twistin’ Postman.”
By the mid-1960s, the Marvelettes’ success began to wane as the group was eclipsed by the Supremes and other Motown acts. Horton was replaced as the lead singer in 1965, and she left the Marvelettes two years later.
