Chubby Checker is an American rock and roll singer and dancer who has been entertaining us for 80 years.
He is probably best known for making dance moves like the Twist and the Pony popular, but he is also well-known for songs like “Let’s Twist Again” that were big hits.
Checker was born in South Carolina in 1941 and grew up in the projects of South Philadelphia. He soon realized that his ability to imitate other people was one of his best skills. By the time he was in high school, he could sing like Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Checker joined Cameo-Parkway Records in 1959, and music executives told him to record his own version of “The Twist,” which Hank Ballard had written and performed first.
When Checker put out his version with a dance routine to go with it, the song became a huge hit right away. “The Twist” changed the way people danced because it let couples break apart on the dance floor.
Since then, he has had 34 hits and won the first Grammy for a rock-and-roll song.
He has also been married to former beauty queen Catharina Lodders for 57 years. Their marriage has been through a lot of hard times, but they are still happy together.
In 1964, when the couple got married, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had just been passed. The act ended restrictions on African-Americans’ right to vote and ended segregation in the army, schools, and basic public services. However, there were still bans on interracial marriage.
This rule wasn’t lifted until three years after they were married.
When people found out that he was marrying a white woman, he told Philadelphia Magazine in 2015, “I didn’t care. “Love doesn’t have any color to it.”
Even though this was a huge problem, the couple went ahead and got married at Temple Lutheran Church in Pennsauken, New Jersey. When they got married, they were both 22 years old. Rev. George L. Garver officiated their wedding and didn’t say anything about the fact that they were from different races.
Jet Magazine talked to Checker and his wife a few months after they got married to find out how married life was going. They were the picture of happiness.
Checker said he loved his marriage and that he and Lodders would be happy no matter what.
Checker also said that his wife knew about the racial problems in America but didn’t care. He said that they got along well and had a great time together because they both had the same ideas about life.
Checkers met Lodders in Manila in January 1962. He asked her to marry him at his parents’ house in December 1963, just one month after Lodders’s time as Miss World was over.
In 1962, when she was only 20, the Dutch model won the Miss World Beauty Pageant in London. That same year, she also won Miss Holland.
When Checker and Lodders first got married and tried to buy a new home in Philadelphia, they were treated unfairly. This didn’t stop them, though, and in 1965 they bought a house outside of Philadelphia, where they still live today.
Their love and understanding have kept their marriage strong for 57 years and given them three successful children: Bianca Johanna Evans, WNBA player Mistie Bass, and musician Shan Egan. Also, they have seven grandkids.
The Herald-Tribune said in 2016 that Checker and Lodders went to see Garver, their former pastor, who married them on his 100th birthday.
This lovely couple shows that love can win over anything.