Berry Gordy was born in Detroit Michigan on November 28, 1929 to Berry, Sr. He was the second oldest out of eight children. Both of his parents worked hard, Berry Sr. ran a plastering contracting business and Bertha sold insurance and real estate, and together they also ran a grocery store and print shop. Berry dropped out of school after his junior year to become a professional boxer, but was drafted by the army in 1951. While in the army he got his GED, and a couple years later in 1953 he married Thelma Coleman. They had three children, Hazel Joy, Berry IV and Terry.
Gordy wanted to change stereotypes of black culture by helping his artists to be more accepted by mainstream America. He wanted to take poor black youths from Detroit and teach them how to walk, talk, and dress as successful classy women and gentlemen. He hired Maxine Powell, who operated a finishing and modeling school, to prepare his performers. He also hired a choreographer Cholly Atkins, a well known dancer, to teach these groups how to move gracefully. He turned his street-smart performers into polished professionals.
In 1953 when Berry was out of the army, he opened a jazz oriented record store called the 3-D Record Mart. By 1955, the store had failed and Berry was working on the Ford automobile assembly line. While working on the line, Berry wrote songs and would send them to magazines, contests and singers. His first success as a songwriter was in 1957 when Jackie Wilson recorded "Reet Petite" a song that he, his sister, and Billy Davis had written. This song became a hit and over the next two years he co-wrote four more songs for Wilson. Now a successful songwriter, Berry decided to produce his songs himself. It soon was obvious that Gordy had a great ability to recognize talent. In 1957, at a Detroit talent show, he saw a group the Miracles and wanted to record them. The lead singer of this band was William "Smokey" Robinson.
