Etterlene DeBarge family, husband, children, parents, siblings

Etterlene Louise Rodriguez was widely known as an American gospel singer, songwriter, and matriarch of the American R&B/soul vocal group DeBarge. She was the author of Other Side of the Pain, which documented her struggles in her marriage to her children’s father and her children’s rise to fame and struggles under the spotlight.

Etterlene DeBarge husband

Etterlene DeBarge was married twice. In 1952, she met Army veteran Robert DeBarge, who was from Cicero, Illinois and, of French and English descent. The couple married in 1953 and settled in a predominantly black section of Detroit, where they had ten children. In 1972, the DeBarges moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Etterlene’s brother, Bishop William Charles Abney, Jr., pastored Bethel Pentecostal Church. She divorced Robert DeBarge sometime in 1974.

Etterlene DeBarge later married a second time to Puerto Rican George Rodriguez, leading to the erroneous belief that the DeBarge family was half-Hispanic; contrary to popular belief, they are not of Latino descent.

Etterlene DeBarge children

Etterlene DeBarge has ten children. She shares all ten children with Robert DeBarge whom she met in 1952 and married. They are Bobby DeBarge, Bunny DeBarge, Tommy DeBarge, EI DeBarge, Randy DeBarge, Mark DeBarge, Chico DeBarge, James DeBarge, and Carol “Peacher” DeBarge.

Etterlene DeBarge parents

Etterlene DeBarge was born Etterlene Abney on October 13, 1935, in Royal Oak, Michigan, as one of twelve children and had a twin sister. Her father is James Abney and her mother is unknown. When she was a child, her family moved to the Brewster-Douglass housing projects, located on Detroit’s Lower East Side.

Etterlene DeBarge siblings

Etterlene DeBarge has 11 siblings and six are identified as William Charles Abney, Jr., Phoebe Marshall, Marjorie Brooks, Mamie Braden, Ernestine Allen, and Clara Hendricks.