Raynoma Gordy Singleton, who played a vital role in the early days of Motown as the business partner and second wife of Berry Gordy Jr., the record label’s founder and patriarch, died on Nov. 11 in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 79.

The cause was brain cancer, her family said. Her death was not immediately announced.

Who is Berry Gordy wife Ray Singleton?

In most versions of Motown’s founding myth, Mr. Gordy, a former boxer and Detroit autoworker, created his musical enterprise a series of interconnected labels and other companies in early 1959 to gain greater control over his budding career as a songwriter and producer.

But by his side from the earliest days was Ms. Singleton, whom Mr. Gordy met when she auditioned as a singer in 1958, impressing him with her perfect pitch. From then until 1964, when she left Motown for the first time, Ms. Singleton helped Mr. Gordy run some of his most important businesses, including Jobete, the company that managed Motown’s music publishing rights.

She also created arrangements for Motown’s studio musicians and taught future stars like Smokey Robinson the fundamentals of music theory.