Within two years, he left the Bold City for Orlando, then Tampa, then eventually moved out to Seattle, WA. The Ritz was the hottest venue in what had come to be known as the “ Harlem of the South,” but unfortunately, the Jax music scene still wasn’t quite big enough to propel Ray to stardom at the time. He played with bands at the Ritz Theatre back in the heyday of the LaVilla nightlife scene, making a name for himself as a talented musician. Ray Charles was a singer and composer who overcame a disability of blindness at a young age, which may have been due to glaucoma, to become one of the most successful musicians of the 20th century. Following his expulsion, he took up residence with a family friend in Jacksonville. In the same year his younger brother drowned. However, Charles always maintained that his visual impairment was never much of an obstacle to his career as a singer. At the age of five Charles slowly began to lose his sight, most likely as a result of congenital juvenile glaucoma. Charles was stricken with glaucoma at the young age of six, rendering him blind for the rest of his life. In this blog post, we’ll discuss what glaucoma is and how did Ray Charles go blind. What you may not know is that Charles was born with a condition called glaucoma, which caused him to go blind by the time he was 7 years old. Ray was expelled for acting out after the sudden death of his mother. Ray Charles was a legendary blind pianist and singer who is as iconic today as he was talented when he was alive. His music touched so many people and continues to inspire new generations of musicians today. He studied composition (writing music in Braille) and learned to play the alto saxophone. Music and often putting on shows for other students. At age six, he contracted glaucoma that eventually left him blind. He attended the school for eight years, learning to play classical Then, fully blind – so that he could attend the Florida School for the Deaf and A multitalented blind black musician, Ray Charles pioneered soul music, which became enormously popular among both black and white audiences beginning in. That he was a black child in the days of segregation. School that would be able to accommodate him – both his blindness, and the fact His start learning and playing music here in Northeast Florida.īorn in Albany, GA, Ray Charles Robinson and his mother movedīack to the small North Florida town of Greenville, FL, shortly after his birth.īut when Ray started losing his vision, his mother sought out a town with a Overcome his blindness to become one of the country’s earliest pioneering musicīut before he hit it big on the national circuit, Charles got By the time of his passing in 2004 at age 73, musician RayĬharles had ascended to legendary status within American pop culture, having
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