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Left - right, Bottom:
Dennis Thomas, Robert "Kool" Bell
Left - right, Top:
Otha Nash, Claydes "Charles" Smith, Ronald "Khalis" Bell, George "Funky" Brown, Robert "Spike" Mickens
 See our Tribute to Charles Smith
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Click here
to view the Kool and the Gang Biography
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Click on a time period to find out more:
1954
George, age five, begins hearing music in his head and composing songs.
1955
 Bobby Bell returns home from the road with a “Hi Fidelity” record player. Ronald hears Miles Davis Round About Midnight wafting from his parents’ bedroom.
1956
Ronald’s Aunt Narvie taught him to play a gospel song on the piano.
1957
Robert and Mabel separate. Mabel moves to Elmira, New York with Robert, Ronald and their two younger brothers Kevin and Michael. She takes a job with Remington Typewriters.
1959
Mabel is laid off in Elmira. She moves back to Youngstown with her four sons. The steel mills where Mabel worked are closed down. With no job, Mabel and the four boys suffered extreme poverty. Ronald misses a year of school because he had no shoes to wear. Mabel wrote a letter to President Kennedy and sent a picture that Ronald drew of their home, a run down shack. The President read the letter on television.
George, age 10, meets Ricky Westfield who lives on his block on Storms Avenue in Jersey City.
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