Wanda LaFaye Young

 Wanda LaFaye Young (August 9, 1943 – December 15, 2021), also known as Wanda Rogers.

Originally aspiring to be a nurse, Young's professional music career started after fellow Inkster High School classmate Gladys Horton asked her to audition for a spot left by Georgia Dobbins, an original member of the group, then called the Marvels. After a successful audition, Young joined the group and the quintet, which had auditioned for a deal with Motown earlier, returned with a song written by Dobbins titled "Please Mr. Postman". Impressed with the group's sound, they were immediately signed and had their name changed to the Marvelettes and after the song was remastered, the song was released and became Motown's first No. 1 Pop single in late 1961—it also held the top slot for seven weeks on Billboard's R&B chart. Young sang lead on the B-side of the single on a ballad, "So Long, Baby". The first hit single to feature her on lead was the dance hit, "I'll Keep Holding On". From then on until the Marvelettes' departure, Young would be the main lead vocalist of the group. She went on to sing lead on several classics such as "Don't Mess with Bill" (a million-selling gold 45), "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game", "When You're Young and in Love" and "My Baby Must Be a Magician".

In 1970, Wanda recorded a solo album with Smokey Robinson serving as her producer. Sensing marketing value as a Marvelettes release, Motown released the album as The Return of the Marvelettes. The other Marvelettes refused to participate for the album cover and the album flopped. Young left the label in 1972 when the Motown label relocated from Detroit to Los Angeles. Young was involved with many years of substance abuse and alcoholism following the Marvelettes' departure, largely due to witnessing the shooting death of her sister at the Young family's Inkster residence. She re-emerged in the late 1980s after accepting an offer from Motorcity Records' Ian Levine to record new songs and revised versions of her classics with the Marvelettes. She made a brief return to performing in the early 1990s but without Marvelettes members Gladys Horton and Katherine Anderson. The Marvelettes were nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2013 and again 2015.

On December 18, 1963, Young married her longtime boyfriend Bobby Rogers, a member of the Miracles, in Detroit and became known professionally as Wanda Rogers. The union produced two children; son Robert III and daughter Bobbae. Wanda and Bobby divorced in 1975 after 12 years of marriage. In her later years, Young resided in Inkster, Romulus, Redford, and the Brightmoor section of Detroit. She died in December 2021, at the age of 78.