Born in Columbus, Mississippi in 1940, Robbie Montgomery has lived a frankly incredible life.
She was one of the original “Ikettes” in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, a “Night Tripper” for Dr. John, and a backup singer for acts as diverse as Barbara Streisand, the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Debbie Reynolds, and Joe Cocker. She performed on television shows like American Bandstand and toured Europe with the St. Louis Kings of Rhythm.
In the 1970s, she was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, and a collapsed lung put an end to her music career—at least for the time. In 1996, she opened the first of her Sweetie Pie’s chain of soul food restaurants, using the recipes that she had grown up with.
“When I was on the road with Ike & Tina, everything was segregated,” Montgomery, now affectionally known as Miss Robbie, said in an interview, “so I was the cook. My mom had 9 kids and I was the oldest and she taught me how to cook so we would cook every time we had a kitchen.”
Deep down, however, Miss Robbie may still have been an entertainer at heart, because it wasn’t long until her soul food restaurants had blossomed into the reality TV show Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s, which ran for 7 years from 2011 to 2018 on the Oprah Winfrey Network, winning two NAACP Image Awards.
Unfortunately, the show was headed for a tragic end.
What Happened to Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s?
The popular Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s show not only chronicled the work that went into running the Sweetie Pie’s restaurants, it also followed Miss Robbie’s family, many of whom worked with her at the various Sweetie Pie’s locations.
Among these were James Timothy Norman, one of Miss Robbie’s children, and Andre Montgomery Jr., Norman’s nephew and Miss Robbie’s grandson.
Andre Montgomery Jr. was 21 years old when he was lured out onto the street near Fairground Park in St. Louis and shot to death by Travell Anthony Hill.
Who was Hill, and why did he kill Andre Montgomery Jr.? The answer would shake the foundations of the Montgomery family and spell the end of the Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s show.
It was not until four years later that James Timothy Norman was arrested in connection with the murder. “Tim Norman portrayed one image to the public,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Angie Danis, “but there were more sinister intentions lurking underneath.”
It seemed that Norman was the sole beneficiary of a life insurance policy on his nephew—one that was worth $450,000.
To collect, he had paid an exotic dancer named Terica Taneisha Ellis $10,000 to locate Andre Norman Jr., at which time Travell Anthony Hill had been paid $5,000 to shoot him with a .380-caliber pistol.
“Tim Norman sought to make $450,000 by having his nephew, Andre Montgomery, killed,” U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming said. “Instead, he was caught and will spend the rest of his life in prison.”
The Fallout of the Sweetie Pie’s Murder
Tim Norman
Photo Credit: People“This could easily have been just another unsolved killing,” Judge John A. Ross said, praising the “incredible effort” made by investigators to crack the case.
James Timothy Norman was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on March 2, 2023, despite letters from family and friends—including Miss Robbie herself—asking for leniency.
“I don’t know whether Tim did what he was accused and convicted of,” Miss Robbie’s letter reads, in part. “He is still the baby that I bore, and I love him as every mother involved loves their child.”
Other persons of interest in the crime received lesser sentences. Triggerman Travell Anthony Hill was sentenced to 32 years in prison for murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, while Terica Taneisha Ellis received a sentence of three years behind bars.
Also sentenced to three years was Waiel Rebhi Yaghnam, Norman’s former insurance agent, who had helped Norman to obtain – and then claim—the life insurance policy on Andre Montgomery Jr.
While the others pleaded guilty and helped to testify in the case against Norman, James Timothy Norman himself maintained his innocence, even after his conviction in the elaborate Sweetie Pie’s murder plot, which Judge Ross called “a cold-blooded, incredibly premeditated, planned execution of your nephew.”
The End of Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s, but Not the End
Tim Norman's Mugshot
Photo Credit: St. Louis Post-DispatchOf course, the repercussions of the murder affected more than just the victim and perpetrators.
“Five families, especially that of the victim, are suffering and irreparably harmed as a result of Norman’s plot to have his own nephew murdered,” FBI agent Jay Greenberg observed.
By the time James Timothy Norman was arrested in connection with his nephew’s murder, the Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s show was already off the air, having been canceled at the end of its 9th season in 2018.
The show’s 100th and final episode, which aired on June 9, 2018, was called “Movin’ On.”
While the Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s show may be over and the future of the chain of soul food restaurants owned by Miss Robbie and managed by her family—including, at one time, both Andre Montgomery Jr. and James Timothy Norman—remains uncertain, Miss Robbie isn’t done yet.
Even as Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s drew to a close in 2018, Miss Robbie released a new solo musical album, her first in more than 40 years.
According to the Riverfront Times, her seven-song EP, entitled Miss Robbie Is What They Call Me, “finds the singer in warm and feisty voice, her distinctive vibrato only barely mellowed by time.”
Through a life marked by both triumph and tragedy, Miss Robbie appears to have come full circle—and she doesn’t seem to be done yet.
Featured photo: Yahoo ; Additional photos: People; St. Louis Post-Dispatch
