Quiet in the B-Side: Charles Wayne Hendricks — A Son of Ray Charles and the Family That Followed the Music

Basic Information

I’ll admit: I came to this story like a fan flipping through a beloved vinyl—scratching at the label to read the liner notes, hoping for a hidden message. Charles Wayne Hendricks is one of those liner-note names: it shows up, it matters, but the grooves around it are quiet. Listed in multiple biographical enumerations as a son of Ray Charles and Margie Hendrix, Charles’s life — as reflected in public sources — is mostly a shadowed track tucked into a much larger record.

Think of the family like an orchestra where the lead singer is impossible to ignore. Ray Charles, the soloist, towers, and Margie Hendrix—fierce, talented, troubled—figures in the background like a thrilling harmony that sometimes catches fire. From that intense duet came children whose lives threaded into and away from the spotlight. Charles Wayne Hendricks appears in those family roll calls; beyond that, the public trail grows thin.

The Family — names, relations, and a short introduction table

Below is a compact way to meet the people most commonly associated with Charles Wayne Hendricks in public listings. These are introductions, not deep biographies—more like chapter headings than full chapters.

Those names form the chorus around Charles’s lone mention—some are public-facing, others remain private; together they outline a complicated, extended family history threaded with music, legal disputes, and private lives kept largely offstage.

Dates, disputes, and the public record

Here’s where the story splits into two grooves. On one side: clear, repeatable facts—Charles’s name appears consistently as a child of Ray Charles and Margie Hendrix; biographical lists place a birthdate of October 1, 1959 next to his name. On the other side: silence and contradiction. Several user-generated pages and smaller memorial sites list a 2013 death year for a man named Charles Wayne Hendricks, but that claim lacks a single, authoritative civil-record confirmation in the public domain; major obituaries and primary documents that would clinch that fact are not present in the accessible record. So the responsible phrasing here is: reported, repeated, but not independently verified.

Numbers matter when we try to grasp scale: Ray Charles is commonly listed as father to 12 children—twelve different life trajectories, twelve different combinations of privacy and publicity. Several of those children have shown up in legal actions involving the disposition of Ray Charles’s early song copyrights—legal footnotes that pulled otherwise private names into the courtroom light. Charles Wayne Hendricks’s own public presence beyond family lists and occasional legal mentions, however, remains minimal to non-existent, a ghost-note in the margins of Ray’s larger biography.

Career, wealth, and public presence — what the record says

If celebrity were a ledger, some columns are blank for Charles. There are no authoritative credits in music, no business profiles, no financial estimates from reputable trackers—nothing to form a reliable net worth snapshot. Where publicity exists, it’s mostly in the form of list-type articles or legal filings that enumerate heirs and interested parties. In short: public life—scarce; private life—preserved; verifiable financial or professional data—absent.

I like to imagine the life of someone like this as the B-side to a blockbuster single: the A-side plays on the radio, the crowds chant, the biographies multiply; the B-side spins quietly in the living room, known to close listeners, cherished by a few, but never sampled across the airwaves.

What we can say, in firm sentences

• Charles Wayne Hendricks is publicly listed as a son of Ray Charles and Margie Hendrix, with a commonly reported birth date of October 1, 1959.
• Public documentation of career, wealth, or a definitive death date for Charles is either absent or inconsistent; a 2013 death date appears on some user-submitted pages but lacks broad confirmation.
• The family network includes a dozen children with varied public footprints—some visible, some private—tied together by the same famous surname and the complicated legacy that follows a global music icon.

FAQ

Who is Charles Wayne Hendricks?

Charles Wayne Hendricks is a man listed in multiple biographical rosters as a son of Ray Charles and Margie Hendrix, but he otherwise maintains a very low public profile.

When was he born?

A commonly reported birth date is October 1, 1959, though public records beyond biographical listings are scarce.

Is Charles Wayne Hendricks confirmed deceased?

Some user-contributed pages report a 2013 death year, but that claim is not corroborated by readily available primary public records.

What was his career?

No authoritative public record of a professional career for Charles Wayne Hendricks could be found; mentions of him are largely familial or legal.

Does he have any notable siblings?

Yes—he is listed among the twelve children commonly attributed to Ray Charles, including public figures such as Sheila Raye Charles.

Was he involved in legal matters related to Ray Charles’s estate?

Members of Ray Charles’s family have appeared in litigation over copyrights and estate matters; Charles’s name appears in family lists tied to that wider context, though his personal role in litigation is not clearly documented in public biographies.

What is his net worth?

There is no reliable public estimate of Charles Wayne Hendricks’s net worth.

Where can I find more definitive records?

Vital records, court dockets, and primary obituaries would be the places to check for definitive answers—yet such records are not presently part of the accessible public narrative about Charles Wayne Hendricks.