Faye Treadwell (born Fayrene Lavern Johnson, 5 September 1926 - 22 May 2011) was the manager of

The Drifters The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/Soul music, soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, f ...

. Treadwell was one of the first African-American women managers.

Early life

Fayrene Johnson was born on 5 September 1926 in Okolona, Arkansas to a schoolteacher and a Baptist minister. She was the eldest of their four children. She graduated from Arkansas Baptist College and went to work in education, for the

Los Angeles School Board LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service (transportation), Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a ...

. In 1957, she married

George Treadwell George McKinley Treadwell (December 21, 1918 in New Rochelle, New York – May 14, 1967 in New York City) was an American jazz trumpeter and the manager of the Drifters. Treadwell played in the house band at Monroe's in Harlem in 1941– ...

, a manager whose clients included

Sarah Vaughan Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer. Nicknamed "Sassy" and "Jazz royalty, The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was nominated for a total of nine ...

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop si ...

and

Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s songs". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performe ...

. He had recently begun managing The Drifters. George died suddenly in 1967, at which point Faye Treadwell bought out his partners and took control of The Drifters. Treadwell took The Drifters to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in the 1970s and was based there for 30 years, in addition to having a home in

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from por ...

. Treadwell fought many legal battles over the rights to The Drifters' name. Treadwell retired in 2001 due to ill health.

Death and commemoration

Treadwell died of complications of breast cancer on 22 May 2011. Her daughter Tina Treadwell took over managing the legacy of The Drifters. In November 2021, ''

The Drifters Girl ''The Drifters Girl'' is a jukebox musical with a book by Ed Curtis based on an idea by Tina Treadwell. It is based on the story of the American vocal group The Drifters and their manager from 1967 until 2001, Faye Treadwell. The musical features ...

'' opened at the Garrick Theatre, telling the story of Treadwell's life via a musical.

References

1926 births 2011 deaths People from Clark County, Arkansas African-American businesspeople American music managers The Drifters {{DEFAULTSORT:Treadwell, Faye