What Is Robbie Montgomery's Net Worth?
Robbie Montgomery is an American businesswoman and former backup singer who has a net worth of $6 million. Robbie Montgomery began her music career in the '60s as an Ikette, the backing group for Ike & Tina Turner. She also was a backup singer for a number of other artists including The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and James Brown. However, after Robbie's lung collapsed, she was forced to leave her singing career behind.
She opened a restaurant called Sweetie Pie's in St. Louis, Missouri, serving family soul food recipes that had been passed down for generations. The restaurant became immensely popular, and in 2011, the Oprah Winfrey Network began airing the reality series "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's." The show aired for nine seasons and featured Montgomery and her son Tim Norman, who was her business partner until he orchestrated a murder-for-hire plot that earned him a life sentence in prison. Robbie appeared in the 1992 documentary "Tina Turner: The Girl from Nutbush," and she published "Sweetie Pie's Cookbook: Soulful Southern Recipes, from My Family to Yours" in 2015. In 2018, she released the album "Miss Robbie's What They Call Me."
Early Life
Robbie Montgomery was born on June 16, 1940, in Columbus, Mississippi. Robbie is the daughter of James Montgomery and Ora Gray, and when she was very young, the family lived with her great-grandmother, who was American Indian and was called Miss Pathenia. The family relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, when Montgomery was 6 years old, and Robbie and her eight younger siblings lived in the Pruitt-Igoe projects. She was raised in a Baptist household but later became a Methodist. Montgomery attended Curtis Elementary School and Pruitt High School, and she began singing in the church choir at an early age.
Music Career
Robbie formed the doo-wop group the Chordettes (later known as the Rhythmettes) with her friends Sandra Harding and Frances Hodges, and they began competing in talent shows. After local singer Art Lassiter hired the trio to be his backup singers, they became known as the Artettes. Lassiter performed with Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm, and when he failed to show up for a recording session in March 1960, Turner recruited the Artettes to sing with his backup vocalist Tina Turner (who was then known as Little Ann). "A Fool In Love," a song Ike wrote for Art, was released in 1960 and reached #27 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and #2 on the Hot R&B Sides chart. Turner formed a new group, the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, in 1960, but Montgomery was pregnant and couldn't tour with them. After giving birth in 1961, Robbie toured with Earl Hooker before forming The Ikettes with Jessie Smith and Venetta Fields.
In 1962, Montgomery released the single "Crazy In Love" / "Pee Wee" on Teena Records, Turner's label, and the Ike & Tina Turner Revue moved to California. The Ikettes released the hits "Peaches 'N' Cream" and "I'm So Thankful" in 1965, and they performed on shows such as "American Bandstand" and "Hollywood A Go-Go." After the Ikettes left the Ike & Tina Turner Revue in the mid-1960s, the group signed a deal with Mirwood Records and changed its name to the Mirettes. They later moved to Revue Records and had a successful single with 1968's "In the Midnight Hour." In the '70s, Robbie left the Mirettes and joined Dr. John as a backup singer. She also performed with acts such as Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand, Joe Cocker, Debbie Reynolds, Bonnie Raitt, and Van Morrison. Around this time, Montgomery was diagnosed with sarcoidosis and underwent lung surgery, which forced her to step back from her singing career. In 1986, she began touring Europe with the St. Louis Kings of Rhythm. Robbie released her debut solo album, "Miss Robbie's What They Call Me," in 2018.
Sweetie Pie's
After her lung collapsed, Montgomery returned to St. Louis and began working as a dialysis technician. She later opened the soul food restaurant Sweetie Pie's using her mother's recipes, and she ran it with her family. The first Sweetie Pie's location opened in 1996 in Dellwood, Missouri, and Robbie often hires former inmates to work in her restaurants. From 2011 to 2018, the reality series "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Montgomery was featured in the 2015 Dave Hoekstra book "The People's Place: Soul Food Restaurants and Reminiscences from the Civil Rights Era to Today." The following year, she sued her son Tim Norman, her business partner, for "stealing money and misusing her trademarks to open competing restaurants." In 2020, a Sweetie Pie's opened in Jackson, Mississippi, but it closed three years later. In September 2022, Robbie announced that the St. Louis location was closing, and in May 2023, it was reported that she would be opening a new restaurant in the area called Sweetie Pie's 2nd Act.
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Personal Life
Robbie welcomed son Andre Montgomery with Art Lassiter in 1961. Andre died in 1995, and his son, Andre Jr., who was featured on "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's," was murdered in 2016. Montgomery's son Tim Norman was born in the late '70s. Tim managed the Sweetie Pie's restaurant that was located at Manchester Avenue in St. Louis, and he was arrested in 2018 for allegedly punching a former employee the previous year. In August 2020, Norman was arrested again, this time for his alleged involvement in a murder-for-hire plot that led to Andre Jr.'s death in 2016. Tim was the sole beneficiary of an insurance policy on Andre Jr., and he reportedly recruited exotic dancer Terica Ellis and others to help with the murder plot. Norman was found guilty in September 2022 and was later sentenced to life in prison.
Awards and Nominations
In the '80s, the St. Louis Kings of Rhythm were appointed ambassadors of the City of St. Louis by Mayor Vincent Schoemehl. In 2010, Robbie was presented with a plaque from the Missouri Department of Corrections for "her willingness to help ex-offenders." "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" earned five NAACP Image Award nominations for Outstanding Reality Series or Outstanding Reality Program/Reality Competition Series, winning in 2013 and 2016. The show also received NAMIC Vision Award nominations for Reality in 2012 and 2013.
