Chicago Police confirmed Monday that they are investigating whether Temptations singer Dennis Edwards was abused by his wife before his death last week.
The 74-year-old musician passed away at a city hospital on Thursday due to complications from meningitis.
Shortly before his death, his wife Brenda Edwards was ordered to stay away from him after the couple were visited at their apartment by an adult protective services investigator.
The investigator filed a protective order on Edwards’ behalf on January 12, alleging that his wife had tried to suffocate him by holding his head facedown on a bed.
Chicago Police are investigating reports that Temptations singer Dennis Edwards (left) was abused by his wife Brenda (right) before his death last week. The couple pictured in 2015
Edwards was one of the lead singers of the Motown group The Temptations. He’s circled above
The document also says Brenda took her ‘bed bound and immobile’ husband’s hearing aids away from him.
The order was granted on January 18, barring Brenda from having contact with her husband.
By that point, Dennis had been removed from his home anyway due to medical issues.
An adult protective services investigator claimed in a report last month that Brenda tried to suffocate her bed bound husband. The couple pictured above in 2013
A hearing was set for Friday in the case, in which Brenda would have been given the opportunity to respond to the allegations. But in the wake of her husband’s death, the protective order was vacated and the hearing cancelled.
That doesn’t mean Brenda is off the hook yet though. The Chicago Police Department confirmed Monday that they are investigating the allegations.
Brenda denied the allegations in a statement the same day.
‘I loved Dennis, and we were married for 18 years. I would have never done anything to harm him. These allegations are false and defamatory and will be proven as such. Until this is all over, I have no further comment,’ she said, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Edwards was one of the lead singers of the Motown Records vocal group The Temptations.
He has a list of hit songs on his resume. One is Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone, which was released in early 1972 and hit the 24th spot on the the R&B Charts.
It was included on The Undisputed Truth’s 1973 album Law of the Land.
Another big song was Cloud Nine as well as Ball Of Confusion and I Can’t Get Next to You.
Edwards (pictured center) joined the group in 1968 and left to pursue a solo career in 1977. He returned to the band in 1980
In 1989 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with The Temptations. In 2013, they received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Born in 1932 in Fairfield, Alabama, Edwards began singing as a child.
When the family moved to Detroit, he began singing in his church’s choir. He went on to join several different groups, but none of them stuck.
Then in 1968 he replaced David Ruffin in The Temptations and the hits started coming like Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me).
He left the band in 1977 to pursue a solo career.
His first solo album, Don’t Look Any Further, reached the number two spot on the R&B charts.
The title track of his next album, Coolin’ Out, was an R&B Top 30 hit.
He returned to The Temptations in 1980 when they left Atlantic Records to return to Motown.
He was married once before, to Ruth Pointer of The Pointer Sisters, from 1976 to 1977.
He is survived by five daughters, a son and several grandchildren.