Boston Urban Archive

9.9, a group from Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood topping the music charts in 1985.

Consisted of three women: lead singer Margo Thunder, Leslie Jones, and Wanda Perry. They met while attending Madison Park High School and gained local notoriety by performing on corners in Boston’s Downtown area in the late 1970s and early 1980s before transitioning to performing at shows. It’s reported they went under the names Steppin Out, Intrigue, and Thunder until settling on the official name “9.9”, once signed.

In 1985, they achieved significant success with their hit song “All of Me for All of You,” which topped the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song was featured as a regular BET rotation and they performed on popular TV shows like American Bandstand, as seen in this clip.

For reference, the #1 top-selling song on the 1985 charts in its category was Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love For You.” They reached the #7 position on their release week in July!! By November they remained in the Top 100 Billboard Charts.

Their producer, the renowned singer Richard “Dimples” Fields, known for his 1982 hit “If It Ain’t One Thing, It’s Another,” discovered the group while looking for local vocalists for background singers during his performance with The Whispers in Boston.

Their debut album, titled 9.9, reached #79 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and #15 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in 1985.

They disbanded in 1987. Sadly, Leslie Jones passed away in 2013, while Margo Thunder continued with successful solo projects. Wanda Perry, on the other hand, dedicated her talent to vocal coaching and education in Boston.

Clip Source: American Bandstand, hosted by Dick Clark, was a weekly live show that featured audience involvement in rating performances, dancing, and interacting with artists. RCA Records. Billboard.

John Curtis Thomas was born in Boston in 1941 and was living in Cambridge by the time he reached Highschool. He attended Rindge Technical High School (before it became Cambridge Rindge and Latin in 1977). His father, Curtis, was a public-transit bus driver before the MBTA era, and his mother, Ida, worked in a Harvard University kitchen.

In Highschool Thomas pursued his track & field career excelling in the high jump. While still in Highschool he cleared a 6’8¼” jump, earning a trip to Japan with an AAU team, where he reached 6’10”.

He then attended Boston University, becoming one of the school’s—and the city’s—most celebrated athletes. By age 19, he held the world indoor record at 6’11¾”, soon becoming the first man to clear seven feet indoors—a barrier he would surpass 191 times.

A favorite for consecutive Olympic titles, he won bronze in Rome in 1960. “Every time he goes up it’s a new record,” a commentator said during the 1960 Olympic Trials.

In 1964, he won silver in the Tokyo Olympics as a Boston Athletic Association athlete—the organization’s first African American member—despite privately suffering from a hernia and being advised not to compete to avoid worsening the condition.

After retiring and earning his bachelor’s degree in Physical and Psychological rehabilitation from BU, Thomas worked in sports administration, advertising, and later served as athletic director at Roxbury Community College.

He entered into the Track & Field Hall of Fame at Boston University and the Boston Athletic Association.

Sources: B.A.A, USATF, Cambridge Black History Project, Sports Illustrated Vault, MIT 8MM film.

Bill Overton, born and raised in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood where he lived on the ground floor of a three-family home. He recalled cherry and pear trees in his yard and memories of the nice Jamaican couple who lived across the street and his Irish, Portuguese, and Jewish neighbors.

Overton attended Boston English High School, an all-boys school at the time, where he served as vice-president of his class before graduating in 1964. He was a regular at the Huntington Avenue YMCA, where he spent time swimming, participated in various sports, and trained younger kids in athletics.

Overton rose to become one of the early Black athletes from Boston to be drafted into the NFL, with the Dallas Cowboy and Kansas City Chiefs, and featured on the covers of major magazines.

Influenced by role models in the Boston area, such as Richard Morris, Chauncy Pulp, Jeep Jones, Rev. Michael Haynes, and Jim Mahone, who helped develop his discipline and drive through sports, he was also encouraged by his outspoken yet loving mother, grandmother, and aunts.

Transitioning from athletics to entertainment, Overton built a successful career as a model and actor. His television work included appearances in various dramas and sitcoms throughout the 1970s and 1980s, such as “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”, “ABC’s Firehouse,” and even “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

In 1985, Overton married actress, television personality, and trailblazing media figure Jayne Kennedy, with whom he remains married to this day. Jayne, celebrated for her achievements as Miss Ohio USA, her groundbreaking success as an African-American woman in television and sportscasting .

Together, Overton and Kennedy built a life rooted in family, faith, philanthropy, becoming one of Hollywood’s most admired long-lasting power couples.

Source: Good Day!, WCVB-TV Boston (1986). History Makers.