Donald C Cornelius

Cornelius was born in Chicago on Sept. 27, 1936, and grew up on the South Side. After graduating from DuSable High School in 1954, he served a stint in the Marines. He sold tires, cars and insurance before taking a course in broadcasting in 1966. He launched his career as a substitute disc jockey and news announcer on WVON-AM in Chicago and was moonlighting as a sports anchor on "A Black View of the News" on WCIU-TV when he pitched the station's owners the idea of a dance show. The first "Soul Train" aired live and in black and white on WCIU-TV on Aug. 17, 1970. As host and executive producer of "Soul Train," he was soon at the throttle of a nationally syndicated television institution that was the first dance show to cater to the musical tastes of black teenagers and also helped bring black music, dance, fashion and style to mainstream America. In the process of presenting the soul, funk and R&B of the day, the Afro-haired, dapper Cornelius became a TV icon, his sonorous baritone welcoming viewers to "the hippest trip in America." With his first wife, Delores, Cornelius had two sons, Anthony and Raymond. His second marriage, to Russian model Viktoria Chapman, ended in divorce after he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor spousal battery in 2009.