Born Tramaine Davis in San Francisco and raised in Berkeley, Tramaine Hawkins is the granddaughter of %Bishop E.E. Cleveland, one of the founders of the Church of God in Christ Church, the largest Black Pentecostal organization in the U.S. She got her start as a teenager in 1968 performing with the Edwin Hawkins Singers during the homemade recording session that produced the crossover smash "Oh Happy Day," the biggest-selling gospel single to date. In the early '70s, she married Walter Hawkins, Edwin's brother, who went on to lead the Berkeley Love Center Church of God in Christ Church.