Marvin Pentz Gay, Sr.
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The Reverend Marvin Pentz Gay, Sr. (October 1, 1914 – October 10, 1998) was an American fundamentalist minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and later a spin-off sect called the House of God.
Born on a farm along Catnip Hill Pike in Jessamine County, Kentucky, he was the father and murderer of famous Motown performer Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr., later known as Marvin Gaye.
The father and son were said not to have gotten along. Gaye, Jr., was said to have resented his father because he was a closeted crossdresser. Gay, Sr., was displeased with his son's secular music and lifestyle, and arguments between the two were regular and frequent.
Gay, Sr., shot his son twice (in the shoulder and chest) and killed him during an argument at the Gays' Los Angeles, California home on April 1, 1984. He was originally charged with first-degree murder, but the charges were dropped after it was discovered that he had a tumor. He served five years probation for the filicide, after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter, and was sent to a rest home for the remainder of his life. He died of pneumonia in Culver City, California, at the age of 84, in 1998. [1]
