User:Inphoh/Charles Stepney

Charles Stepney Charles Stepney was a producer Writer arranger

Early Life
Charles Stepney was the eldest of 2 sons (with Sterling Jr.) born to Sterling and Willa B. Stepney in Chicago, IL on March 26, 1931.

Charles began his musical instruction under the guidance of his mother Willie B., who was herself a fine pianist who performed with and for luminaries of Chicago’s gospel music communities of the early and mid 1900’s. Willie B formed a singing group called the Stepney Five. Willie B. Stepney who is now 93 says she used to crash different performances at the churches. They like her group so much that the Stepney Five was often billed with the like of Mahalia Jackson, the Soul Stirrers and Roberta Martin as well as other gospel greates. Willie B. taught both of her children, Charles and Sterling how to sing and play. While Charles didn’t have a great singing voice, his brother Sterling would go on to sing Tenor in a local Seventh Day Adventist Group name The Ambassadors for Christ from Ohio. Charles and his brother collaborated in on a gospel album produced by Charles and performed by the SFC. Even as a young child, Charles voraciously loved studying/performing music, and he quickly progressed.