Ebony Magazine

June 2002

by Zondra Hughes

Alfreda Burke is a classically trained opera singer (soprano) who has worked in music, television and film. Burke met her husband 10 years ago at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and says they’ve been making beautiful music together ever since.

“We’re both singers and a mutual friend had us singing Christmas carols together,” she recalls. “For six years we were very good friends.” Four years later, they married and have a blended family: Burke’s 13-year-old son, Dean Perrin, lives in Chicago with the couple, and Dixon’s 13-year-old son Jared, resides in New York.

Dixon is also a native New Yorker who began his musical career in the church; he later earned his Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees from the Mannes College of Music in New York. He has performed on Broadway in Ragtime and has appeared in Lyric Opera’s IL Trovatore and Don Quichotte.

February 2007

The Power Couples:  Love Power   by Joy T. Bennett

One dictionary is succinct:  a power couple is a couple who both have high-powered careers or who are both politically influential.  The notable couples listed here exemplify that proper definition of love at the top, and in the street terminology-bailers-in the best hip-hop sense.  Bold, beautiful, executive-style savvy, and in love?  Who could ask for anything more?

* Massachusetts GOV. DEVAL PATRICK and wife, ATTY. DIANE PATRICK, labor and employment law partner in Boston’s Ropes & Gray law firm.

* National Urban League President and CEO MARC H. MORIAL and his wife, MICHELLE MILLER MORIAL, CBS broadcast journalist.

* Celebrated tenor RODRICK DIXON (Cook, Dixon & Young) and his wife, acclaimed soprano ALFREDA BURKE.

* US Rep. CHAKA FATTAH (D-Penn.) and his wife, Atty. and broadcast journalist (NBC-10 news anchor) RENEE CHENAULT-FATTAH.

* Nationally syndicated radio host, author and philanthropist TOM JOYNER and his wife, author and health and fitness expert DONNA RICHARDSON JOYNER.

* US Rep. JESSE JACKSON JR. (D-IL) and his wife SANDI, Atty. and Democratic National Committee deputy training director.

* Entertainer JANET JACKSON and music producer JERMAINE DUPRI.

* NBC television personality AL ROKER and his wife, ABC News and 20/20 correspondent DEBORAH ROBERTS.

* Filmmaker SPIKE LEE and his wife, Atty. and author TONYA LEWIS LEE.

* Pennsylvania State Senator VINCENT JAMES HUGHES and actress/activist SHERYL LEE RALPH.

(Johnson Publishing Company)

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