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Berry, Smokey and Margaret. Raynoma storms over to Margaret and says, “Listen bitch, what are you doing here with my husband?” Margaret became nervous when she sees the gleam of the pearl-handled .25 in Raynoma’s pocket. Raynoma told her, “Get up now bitch, and walk out. Make one whimper and I’m going to blow you away.”

They walked outside. Raynoma planned to bash the handle of her gun into Margaret’s face, she raised her hand to strike but a pair of strong arms locked around her from behind. It was Smokey. I screamed “let me go,” as Margaret ran down the street for her life. Meanwhile, Berry glared at me from a distance.

Shortly after this incident, Berry and Raynoma divorced.

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Source: “Berry, Me and Motown,” by Raynoma Gordy-Singleton

Wow, it’s a good thing Smokey was there! Every woman has a breaking point and Raynoma’s breaking point transformed her marriage into a real-life Joseline Hernandez and Stevie J “Love & Hip Hop ATL” type of situation. So again, I guess we can’t necessarily blame the term “ratchet” on just the new generation, we had reality show type of drama way back then…we just didn’t have social media and camera phones…LOL.

All jokes aside, it’s just like we, here at ILOSM, always say: we can learn a lot of valuable lessons from the lives of our favorite entertainers- sometimes we can learn what to do and in Raynoma and Berry’s case, what not to do. The biggest lesson I pulled from this incident is that this further proves that Berry Gordy is a real person just like the rest of us. We all have ups and downs and if anyone out there is on their journey to finding their own level of greatness, this lets you know that greatness doesn’t require perfection, it simply requires dedication and passion for what you’re doing. You can get to where you’re trying to go…perfectly flawed and all…just like Berry G.