Charles Wayne Hendricks | Ray Charles’ Son, Family History, and What the Records Show
Charles Wayne Hendricks is best known as the son of legendary musician Ray Charles and rhythm-and-blues singer Margie Hendrix. Biographical sources identify him as one of Ray Charles’ 12 children and the only child born from Charles’ relationship with Hendrix. The commonly documented birth date is October 1, 1959.
Much less is firmly established about his adult life. Unlike his famous father and his mother, a member of the Raelettes, Charles Wayne Hendricks did not develop a substantial public career or leave behind the kind of extensive interview record associated with entertainers. That makes his biography a case where separating documented family history from repeated internet claims is especially important.
One major point requires particular care: 2013 is frequently reported online as the year of Charles Wayne Hendricks’ death, but the publicly available obituary most often cited for that claim identifies a Charles Wayne Hendricks born in 1949 rather than Ray Charles’ son, who is documented as being born in 1959. The two records therefore cannot safely be treated as the same person without additional evidence.
Who Was Charles Wayne Hendricks?
Charles Wayne Hendricks was the son of Ray Charles and singer Margie Hendrix.
His birth placed him within one of the most interesting family networks in 20th-century American popular music. Ray Charles was already an established recording artist in 1959, while Margie Hendrix was an important vocalist associated with the Raelettes, the backing group closely connected with Charles’ performances.
Available biographical records consistently place Charles Wayne’s birth in 1959, with October 1 given as the specific date. A chronology devoted to Ray Charles’ 1959 activities also records the birth of Charles Wayne to Margie Hendricks that year.
Beyond those basic facts, reliable public information becomes considerably thinner. There is little dependable documentation about his schooling, childhood interests, occupation, or adult activities. That absence should not be filled with assumptions.
Quick facts
| Detail | What the available record supports |
|---|---|
| Full name | Charles Wayne Hendricks |
| Also seen as | Charles Wayne Hendrix in some sources |
| Father | Ray Charles |
| Mother | Margie Hendrix/Hendricks |
| Birth date | October 1, 1959, commonly documented |
| Birthplace | New York City is commonly reported, although detailed primary documentation is limited publicly |
| Siblings | He was one of Ray Charles’ 12 biological children |
| Public career | No well-established independent entertainment career is documented |
| Death | 2013 is widely reported by secondary sources, but the identification is not conclusively established |
| Cause of death | Not reliably documented in the public sources reviewed |
Charles Wayne Hendricks’ Parents: Ray Charles and Margie Hendrix
The family history makes more sense when Charles Wayne’s parents are considered together.
Ray Charles was born Ray Charles Robinson in Georgia in 1930 and became one of the defining American musicians of the 20th century. Margie Hendrix, born Marjorie Hendrix, was a singer who became associated first with the Cookies and later with the Raelettes. Sources commonly spell her surname both Hendrix and Hendricks, which helps explain the variation found in records concerning her son.
Charles Wayne was born during the period when Ray Charles and Margie Hendrix were romantically involved. Their relationship occurred while Ray Charles was married to Della Beatrice Robinson, making Charles Wayne part of a larger and complicated family structure.
The important historical point is straightforward: Charles Wayne Hendricks was Ray Charles and Margie Hendrix’s son. Claims about their private relationship beyond what is documented should be treated more cautiously.
Margie Hendrix and the Birth of Her Son
Margie Hendrix’s connection to Ray Charles was both professional and personal.
She became one of the recognizable voices associated with the Raelettes, and her vocal performances can be heard in recordings connected with Ray Charles during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Her work placed her inside a significant chapter of rhythm-and-blues history rather than making her famous solely through her association with Charles.
According to biographical accounts, Hendrix gave birth to Charles Wayne on October 1, 1959. Ray Charles’ biographical record subsequently identifies Charles Wayne as one of his children with Margie Hendrix.
Margie Hendrix died in New York in July 1973, aged 38. Charles Wayne was therefore still young when his mother died. Public sources, though, do not provide enough reliable information to reconstruct precisely how her death affected his upbringing or his later relationship with his father.
Where Charles Wayne Fits Into the Ray Charles Family Tree
Ray Charles’ family was considerably larger than the public image of the musician and his wife might suggest.
Biographical records identify 12 biological children, born to different mothers. Charles Wayne Hendricks appears in that family chronology as the son of Margie Hendrix, born in 1959.
The commonly documented children include:
- Evelyn Robinson
- Ray Charles Robinson Jr.
- David Robinson
- Charles Wayne Hendricks
- Robert Robinson
- Renee Robinson
- Sheila Robinson
- Reatha Butler
- Alexandra Bertrand
- Vincent Kotchounian
- Robyn Moffett
- Ryan Corey Robinson den Bok
This list is useful for understanding where Charles Wayne belongs in the Ray Charles family tree, but it should not be confused with a complete genealogy of every relative connected to the Robinson family.
The family history also explains why searching for “Ray Charles children” can produce confusing results. Several of his children had different surnames and mothers, and some later became public figures in their own right.
Did Charles Wayne Hendricks Follow His Father’s Musical Career?
There is no strong public record establishing Charles Wayne Hendricks as a professional musician comparable to Ray Charles or Margie Hendrix.
That distinction matters because many online biographies describe him as someone who deliberately rejected fame or consciously chose a private lifestyle. Those statements may sound plausible, but a lack of public appearances is not proof of someone’s motives.
A more defensible conclusion is simply that Charles Wayne Hendricks did not leave behind a substantial documented public entertainment career.
His significance comes primarily from his place in the Ray Charles family rather than from a body of recordings, performances, interviews, or other independently documented professional achievements.
Charles Wayne Hendricks and Ray Charles’ Legacy
Charles Wayne’s name also appears in discussions surrounding Ray Charles’ estate and music rights.
After Ray Charles died in 2004, disputes developed concerning his estate and the rights associated with his music. In 2002, Ray Charles had told his children that he intended to establish irrevocable trusts worth $500,000 for each child under specified conditions. A federal court record later documented those arrangements.
A separate copyright dispute involved seven of Ray Charles’ heirs. The federal case The Ray Charles Foundation v. Robinson concerned attempts by those seven heirs to terminate certain copyright grants made during Ray Charles’ lifetime. Importantly, Charles Wayne Hendricks was not one of the seven named defendants in that federal case.
That distinction is often lost in online summaries.
It would therefore be inaccurate to say that Charles Wayne personally led or participated in the lawsuit simply because he was one of Ray Charles’ children. The court record identifies the seven participating heirs separately.
The Ninth Circuit’s 2015 decision also did not simply declare that Ray Charles’ children had “won the music rights.” It addressed whether the Ray Charles Foundation had standing to challenge the copyright termination notices and sent the case back for further proceedings.
Was Charles Wayne Hendricks Married or Did He Have Children?
This is one of the areas where online biographies become unreliable.
Several recent websites claim that Charles Wayne Hendricks married a woman named Marlene Hendricks and had children. A 2013 Colorado funeral-home obituary does indeed identify a Charles Wayne Hendricks who was married to Marlene Hendricks and had children and stepchildren.
But that obituary gives the deceased man’s birth date as October 19, 1949.
The Ray Charles family record places Charles Wayne Hendricks’ birth date at October 1, 1959.
That ten-year discrepancy is too significant to ignore. The available obituary may concern a different man with the same name. Consequently, the names of a wife or children from that obituary should not automatically be attributed to Ray Charles’ son.
For a factual biography, the responsible position is that Charles Wayne’s adult marital and parental history remains insufficiently established in the publicly accessible sources reviewed.
Did Charles Wayne Hendricks Die in 2013?
This is the most important factual qualification in the biography.
A number of secondary websites state that Charles Wayne Hendricks died in 2013, often giving May 7 as the date. But the strongest directly accessible obituary located during research is for a Charles Wayne Hendricks born October 19, 1949, who died May 7, 2013.
That does not match the commonly documented birth date of Ray Charles’ son, October 1, 1959.
As a result, the evidence does not justify presenting May 7, 2013, as a verified death date for Ray Charles’ son.
The most accurate wording is:
Charles Wayne Hendricks is widely reported by secondary sources to have died in 2013, but the publicly available 2013 obituary found for a person with that exact name gives a different birth year, so the identity of that deceased individual cannot be conclusively established as Ray Charles’ son from the available evidence.
This is a good example of why repetition across biography websites is not equivalent to independent confirmation.
What about his cause of death?
No reliable public source located in this research establishes a confirmed cause of death for Ray Charles’ son.
Claims about an illness, accident, substance use, or other cause should therefore not be presented as fact.
Why Charles Wayne Hendricks’ Biography Is Difficult to Document
The challenge is not that there are no references to Charles Wayne Hendricks. There are many.
The problem is that much of the material appearing online ultimately repeats the same small collection of biographical claims. When those claims are compared against stronger records, discrepancies emerge—particularly around his reported death and adult family life.
Three distinctions are especially useful:
- Documented family relationship: Charles Wayne Hendricks is identified as Ray Charles’ son with Margie Hendrix.
- Commonly reported biographical detail: October 1, 1959 is repeatedly given as his birth date.
- Unresolved later-life information: claims concerning his death, wife, children, occupation, and private life require stronger identification evidence.
This approach is preferable to presenting a complete-looking biography built from unverified details.
Charles Wayne Hendricks’ Place in Music History
Charles Wayne Hendricks did not need an entertainment career of his own to occupy a place in music history.
His significance comes from his parents. His father, Ray Charles, helped redefine the relationship between gospel, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, country, and popular music. His mother, Margie Hendrix, was an important vocalist in the Raelettes and contributed to the musical world surrounding Charles during one of his most important creative periods.
Charles Wayne was born into that environment in 1959.
Yet the historical record surrounding him is notably quieter. That contrast is part of what makes his name appear in discussions of Ray Charles’ descendants: he was directly connected to an extraordinary musical family while leaving comparatively little public documentation of his own life.
That limited record should be respected rather than filled with speculation.
Common Misunderstandings About Charles Wayne Hendricks
He should not be confused with every Charles Wayne Hendricks in public records
The 2013 Taylor Funeral & Cremation Services obituary demonstrates why names alone are insufficient for genealogical identification. The deceased man in that record had a different reported birth year and a different documented family structure.
His name may appear as “Charles Wayne Hendrix”
Margie Hendrix herself is also recorded as Margie Hendricks in some sources. Consequently, both Hendrix and Hendricks spellings appear in material concerning her son.
Being one of Ray Charles’ children does not mean he participated in every family legal dispute
The 2015 Ninth Circuit case specifically names seven heirs as defendants. Charles Wayne Hendricks is not among those seven.
Private information should not be presented as established fact
There is insufficient reliable public evidence to confidently describe Charles Wayne’s occupation, marriage, children, residence, wealth, or cause of death.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Charles Wayne Hendricks?
Charles Wayne Hendricks is documented as a son of musician Ray Charles and singer Margie Hendrix. He was born in 1959 and was one of Ray Charles’ 12 biological children.
When was Charles Wayne Hendricks born?
The commonly documented birth date is October 1, 1959. This date appears in biographical records concerning Ray Charles and Margie Hendrix.
Who was Charles Wayne Hendricks’ mother?
His mother was Margie Hendrix, also spelled Margie Hendricks in some sources. She was a rhythm-and-blues singer and member of the Raelettes associated with Ray Charles.
Was Charles Wayne Hendricks one of Ray Charles’ children?
Yes. He is identified as one of Ray Charles’ 12 biological children and as the son of Margie Hendrix.
How many children did Ray Charles have?
Biographical and legal records identify 12 biological children. A federal court opinion also states that Ray Charles had twelve adult children at the time of his death.
Did Charles Wayne Hendricks become a musician?
There is no well-established public record showing that he developed a significant professional music career. Most reliable references to him concern his family connection to Ray Charles and Margie Hendrix.
Did Charles Wayne Hendricks die in 2013?
Many secondary sources report that he died in 2013. However, the publicly available 2013 obituary commonly connected with that claim identifies a Charles Wayne Hendricks born in 1949, whereas Ray Charles’ son is documented as born in 1959. The death identification therefore remains unresolved from the available evidence.
What was Charles Wayne Hendricks’ cause of death?
A reliable public source reviewed for this biography does not establish a confirmed cause of death for Ray Charles’ son. Claims about a specific cause should not be treated as verified.
Did Charles Wayne Hendricks receive an inheritance from Ray Charles?
Ray Charles’ estate planning included $500,000 irrevocable trusts for each of his children under specified agreements. The court record confirms the existence of those arrangements, but it should not be assumed from that fact alone that every later online claim about Charles Wayne’s individual inheritance is accurate.
Conclusion
Charles Wayne Hendricks occupies a distinctive place in the history of the Ray Charles family. He was the son of Ray Charles and Margie Hendrix, born on October 1, 1959, and one of Ray Charles’ 12 children. His family connection places him directly within an important chapter of American rhythm and blues and popular music history.
At the same time, much of his personal story remains undocumented in reliable public sources. That is particularly clear when examining claims about his adult family, career, and reported death in 2013.
For readers researching the Ray Charles family tree, the most useful distinction is between what can be established and what has merely been repeated online. Charles Wayne’s parentage and birth are well represented in biographical records; many later-life details are not.
That distinction preserves both historical accuracy and the privacy of a person whose life was never documented on the same public scale as his famous parents.