Della Beatrice Howard Robinson is best known as the second wife of legendary musician Ray Charles. During their marriage she was widely known by her nickname — Bea, or Della Bea — and she remained a consistent presence in Charles’s life across more than two decades together. While public records about her independent life are limited, she is a confirmed and documented person with her own identity, family, and background.
| Full name | Della Beatrice Howard Robinson |
|---|---|
| Known as | Bea, Della Bea |
| Known for | Second wife of Ray Charles; gospel-singing background |
| Spouse | Ray Charles (married 1955; divorced 1977) |
| Children | Ray Charles Robinson Jr., David Robinson, Robert Robinson |
Who Is Della Beatrice Howard Robinson?
Della Beatrice Howard Robinson is a real, documented individual whose public identity is most firmly tied to her long marriage to Ray Charles. She carried the nickname “Bea” throughout the years of their marriage, and the name Della Bea appears consistently across biographical accounts of that period in Charles’s life.
Beyond the marriage, she is described in secondary sources as having a gospel-singing background and a notably strong singing voice. That musical background is part of who she was before and during her years with Ray Charles, even if a detailed account of her own singing career is not well documented in the public record.
Her Marriage to Ray Charles
Della and Ray Charles married on April 5, 1955. The marriage lasted 22 years — one of the longer and more significant relationships in Ray Charles’s personal life by any measure. Biographies of Charles consistently acknowledge the marriage as one of his most enduring, and Della Bea is named in that context across multiple sources.
The couple divorced in 1977. During those years together, they built a family and shared a home life that ran alongside Charles’s increasingly prominent career. Biographers who have written about Ray Charles tend to treat the marriage to Della as a central chapter in his personal history, in part because of how long it held.
Her Gospel-Singing Background
Sources connected to the Robinson family — including material tied to her son Ray Charles Robinson Jr.’s memoir — describe Della as having a gospel-singing background and a strong natural singing voice. Gospel music carries deep roots in the African American church tradition, and many artists who came up through that world brought serious vocal ability with them.
This musical background is worth acknowledging as part of her own identity. It suggests that Della was not simply a bystander to the musical world her husband inhabited, but someone who came to the relationship with her own connection to music. The sources do not support a detailed account of specific performances or recordings, so that is where the documented record stops.
Della Bea’s Family With Ray Charles
Della Beatrice Howard Robinson and Ray Charles had three sons together. Those sons are Ray Charles Robinson Jr., David Robinson, and Robert Robinson. All three are consistently named across biographical sources covering Ray Charles’s family.
Ray Charles fathered children with several women over the course of his life, but these three sons are the children confirmed as Della’s. Ray Charles Robinson Jr. has spoken and written about his family publicly, and his accounts provide some of the clearest windows into what Della Bea was like as a mother and as a person.
For readers researching the Robinson family, First Business Mag covers related biographical subjects and family histories across a range of public figures.
