February is celebrated as Black History Month in the United States, and Sumter County is proud to have been home to numerous remarkable African Americans over the years. Many African American Sumterites have had distinguished military, musical, political, athletic, and business careers over the years. Only one, however, built an extraordinary legacy across three very different professions: Willie “Bill” Pinkney.
Born in Dalzell in 1925, Bill Pinkney’s first distinguished career came during WWII. During the war Bill served under General Patton, earning a Presidential Citation with five service stars for heroism at the Battle of the Rhine, Bastogne, Normandy, and other major engagements. Receiving multiple service stars as an African American in the still-segregated U.S. military was rare. Fewer than a third of those who served in his detachment of the 101st Airborne ground transportation group survived the war.
After he was honorably discharged, he carved out a career as a pitcher in the Negro League, playing with the New York Blue Sox for two years. However, following the desegregation of Major League Baseball in 1947, Negro Leagues began rapidly disappearing. As opportunities in baseball diminished, Pinkney traded his pitcher’s glove for a microphone.
In 1949 while signing in gospel groups, Bill met Clyde McPhatter who introduced him to fellow singers Gerhardt and Andrew Thrasher. Together with McPhatter and the Thrasher Brothers, they formed The Drifters, a pioneering R&B/Soul music group that became internationally famous in the 1950s. Singing as a bass-baritone, Pinkney was mostly first tenor and helped the group create hits like “Money Honey”, “White Christmas”, “Adorable”, and “Ruby Baby”. After scoring three number one R&B hits on US charts, Pinkney left the group in the late 50s and began a solo career before eventually reuniting with the group’s original members. Though The Drifters would continue performing with entirely different lineups from the group that Pinkney had helped to make famous, they never achieved the same level of success without him.
A beloved member of Sumter, Bill Pinkney passed away in 2007 and was buried at St. Luke’s Church here in town. Today, he is memorialized with a golden bust on Manning Avenue, a lasting tribute to his remarkable contributions to American military history, professional sports, and music.
