Redd Foxx was born John Elroy Stanford on December 9, 1922 in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1926 his father, an electrician, abandoned the family. Shortly afterward, he and his mother moved to Chicago to live with his grandmother. While in high school he formed a wash tub band with some friends, and called themselves the Bon Bons. In 1939 he and the group train hopped across the Midwest, playing on street corners and in bus stations. They got their first big break when the group appeared at the Apollo Theatre in 1941 on the “Major Bowes Amateur Hour.” By this point Foxx had acquired the nickname “Chicago Red” because of his red hair. He then took on the name Foxx in tribute to the baseball player Jimmie Foxx. Red Foxx married four times. He married his first wife Eleanor Killebrea in 1948, divorcing her in 1951. He then married Beatty Jean Harris in 1955. That marriage lasted 19 years until they divorced in 1974. Foxx married Yun Chi Chong in 1975. They divorced ten years later. Finally in 1991 at the age of 69, Foxx married his last wife, Ka Ho Cho in 1991. Red Foxx got his first job … Continue reading Redd Foxx (1922-1991)