Harlean Harris Wilson, R&B legend Jackie Wilson's widow, dies 2 weeks before late husband's Walk of Fame induction aged 81
Harlean Harris Wilson, the widow of the legendary R&B singer Jackie Wilson and a top model in the 1950s and ’60s, died August 24 at the age of 81. Wilson was a well-known model before marrying the singer.
She appeared on the covers of magazines like Ebony, Jet and Hue, and in the celebrity columns for dating Sam Cooke, Ronald Isley and Sammy Davis Jr. before finally wedding Wilson. She passed away less than two weeks before she was to represent her late husband at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on September 4. Harlean Harris was reportedly thrilled about her husband receiving the Walk of Fame honor and being able to speak for him at the ceremony.
“Though we are deeply saddened that Harlean will not be with us physically to accept Jackie’s star on September 4, we are certain that she will be there with Jackie in spirit,” said Paul Tarnopol of Brunswick Records, Jackie Wilson’s record label. “Harlean Wilson was a beautiful woman inside and out who lived her life with tremendous grace and dignity and was loved by us all.”
Harlean Harris was born in White Plains, New York, and she was serving as president of the Billy Ward and the Dominoes Fan Club when Clyde McPhatter left the group and was replaced by Jackie Wilson. “I had never heard a black entertainer sing on Jackie’s level, at all,” she said, according to Variety. “Nobody had.”
Eventually, Jackie saw her on the cover of Ebony and remembering her from the fan club, decided to give her a call. They soon became a couple and in May 1967, they got married.
In 1975, Jackie Wilson suffered a massive heart attack while singing at a New Jersey nightclub that he never fully recovered from. She was his caretaker and the administrator of his estate until his death on January 21, 1984, almost a decade after his collapse.
A spokesperson for the family revealed she died of natural causes. Wilson is survived by the couple’s son John Wilson, a grandson, Robert Wilson and great-grandchildren Zanyah, Liana, Robert Jr. and Valentino, along with two sisters, Cheryl and Brenda.