SESIL JENKINS - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW- TUES- FEB, 21,2017 6:00 PM PST

Born September 4th in Norfolk, VA to the late Cecil J. (a retired Norfolk Public School board employee) and Mildred O. Jenkins (retired Virginia Electric Power employee).  Jenkins grew up in a loving family and was raised in the projects of Norfolk VA.  His parents gave birth to him at an early age. He is the oldest of 7 children.

His father was a street number’s runner and a crap shooter, who was known at the time as a respectable hustler.  His mother, a devote Jehovah’s Witness, would remain in the relationship that spanned from their teenage years to the end of their lives.  Jenkins remembers his father as being a tough man but not tyrannical.  In spite of his lifestyle, he would keep four sons respectable.  Jenkins, who knew what he wanted to do from the age of five, would try his father, only to loose.

Jenkins’ uncle, Horace Jenkins, performed on TV with a vocal group called the Five Pearls/Five Sheiks on the Atlantic Record label during the time of Ray Charles, who was also one of the singers on the Atlantic Record label.

While in high school at Booker T Washington, Cecil made a name for himself throughout the seven city metropolitan area as an extraordinary singer/dancer.  He was called by the name of “Blind”. People would throw money on the dance floor during school dances.  It was an embarrassment Jenkins said, but Jenkins would keep the money.  Always dreaming of the day when he would make his first recording and tour around the world.

Jenkins was first married to Madge Pulley in 1975, his college sweetheart, pregnant with his first child.  He refused to let his child be born without a father and a name.  Months later, she had a miscarriage.  They remained married until her death in 1977.  Cecil Jenkins III was born about a year or so later from Jennifer Sharp, a girlfriend at the time.