Dionne Warwick.

Singer. Marie Dionne Warwick was the oldest of three children of Mancel Warrick, a train porter and chef, and Lee Drinkard, a member of the gospel singing group the Drinkard Sisters. Music was part of Warwick’s background, and at age six, at the request of her grandfather, the Reverend Elzae Warrick, Warwick made her singing debut at the New Hope Methodist Church. She learned to play the piano and occasionally sang with the Drinkard Sisters. Warwick's Aunt Emily, her mother's sister who was nicknamed Cissy, became the mother of Whitney Houston. When they were teens, Warwick and her sister Delia, nicknamed Dee Dee, formed a singing group, the Gospelaires Gospelaires. When visiting the Apollo Theater in Harlem to see the Drinkard Sisters in concert, Warwick heard that a producer was looking for a group to provide background singing for saxophone player Sam “The Man” Taylor; she jumped at the chance. The next night the Gospelaires sang backup for Taylor.