What age did Ray Charles became blind?

Ray Charles was born on September 23, 1919 in West Brewton, Alabama, the seventh of 13 children born to Loyd and Annie Charles. While the Charles family lived in Alabama, Loyd was a sharecropper, and Annie was a housewife. Because of Loyd’s poor health, the family moved to Alabama’s Black Belt region, where Ray Charles’s father could work on a plantation to make money.

What year did Ray Charles lose his eyesight?

While Ray Charles would later describe losing his eyesight as a gradual thing, he did disclose to biographer George Simon that he was born blind. While the date of his birth is unknown, he would later describe his blindness as being hereditary and linked to an unnamed African American family line.

What was Ray Charles's eye problem?

By the time he was about 20, Ray Charles was already blind. He was born with a hereditary degenerative eye disease that caused damage to his retinas. Although the exact cause of his blindness is still unclear, it is thought that Charles was color blind and could not see well because of an inability to distinguish between certain colors.

What year did Ray Charles go blind?

It’s estimated that by 1948, Ray Charles had lost about 80 percent of his sight in both eyes. In 1951, he performed on American Bandstand, and he was the first blind person to have a national television appearance. That year, he also recorded “I Got a Woman” and it became an instant hit.

What year did Ray Charles became blind?

The year that Ray Charles lost his sight was 1948. He was 30 years old at the time. He was born around September 23, 1922. He had been blind since he was two years old.