Little Richard Little Richard Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), known as Little Richard, is an American recording artist, singer-songwriter and actor. A pop music and culture icon, Little Richard's most-celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s when his dynamic music and charismatic showmanship presaged the rise of rock and roll. His music influenced many other popular music genres, including soul, funk and hip hop and shaped generations of rhythm and blues artists. Little Richard has been honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986.
Penniman, Virginia Penniman, Virginia Penniman was an unincorporated town in northwestern York County, Virginia, on the south bank of the York River northeast of Williamsburg. This was on the Virginia Peninsula and near the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. A plant and company town were developed by E.I. DuPont Nemours company originally to manufacture TNT. It was named for Russell Sylvanus Penniman, an American chemist who in 1885 invented ammonia dynamite. As part of the World War I war efforts, Penniman was converted to other use in support of the U.S. Navy, which acquired property for Mine