Ray Charles Robinson Ray Charles Robinson was born on September 23, 1930 in Albany Georgia. His father was Bailey Robinson, a railroad repair man, and his mother was 'Retha. His father never married his mother. His legal wife was Mary Jane, who also helped to raise Charles. By the time he was three, young Charles was learning to play the piano. When he was five his brother, who was three at the time, drowned. A few months later Charles got the disease that would make him go blind by the time he was seven. After he became totally blind at the age of seven, Charles went to a school for the blind in St. Augustine, Florida, where he learned