Vickie Winans (born Viviane Bowman; October 18, 1953) is an American Gospel recording artist. 　　The seventh of twelve children, Winans was born in Detroit, Michigan to Mattie A. Bowman, a housewife, and Aaron Bowman, who worked at various times as a laborer, contractor, carpenter and mason. She began singing in church – the International Gospel Center – at the age of eight, and as a teenager she sang with a group known as the International Sounds of Deliverance. Her siblings include Beverly Bouldes, Sandi Tyler, Irma Crockett, Annette Tharpe, Aaron Bowman, Jr. (deceased), Carleen Riley, Cathy Williams, Mary Sturdivant, Bryan Bowman, Lorne Bowman, and Tim Bowman. 　　Winans has been married and divorced three times. After high school, she married the late Bishop Ronald E. Brown of Faith Tabernacle Deliverance Temple in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Together they had a son, Mario Brown, now known as Mario Winans. In June 1978, she married Marvin Winans of the gospel group The Winans. With Marvin she had two sons, Marvin Jr. (Coconut) and Mario. In 1995, Winans and Marvin Sr. divorced after almost 18 years of marriage. The stress of the divorce caused her to develop ulcers on her esophagus, diabetes and to gain weight. Eventually, Winans regained her health and re-energized her career. At the end of 2003, Winans married businessman Joe McLemore. This marriage lasted just a few years before Vickie divorced him. (Joe passed away in 2018) Vickie lost her mother, Evangelist Mattie Bowman, on December 12, 2006.