Was Tenika Watson a guy?

The night of March 18, 1982--when ladies' man Teddy Pendergrass suffered the Lincoln Drive car accident that left him paralyzed--has become as much a part of the singer's legend as his music. Speculation ran rampant and wild: How many people were in the car with Teddy? Who were they? And what exactly were they doing? (Anyone who knows the myriad theories knows why we can't print them here.) Pendergrass' passenger--at least the one we're sure about--was identified as Tenika Watson, who lived at 21st and Sansom at the time of the accident. PW interviewed Watson in 1998. Born John Watson, she had undergone a sex-change operation and was working part-time as a nude model. She described her relationship with Pendergrass as "flirty," and said they had run into each other a couple times at the now-defunct Fantasy Club. The night of the accident, she said, Pendergrass was giving her a ride home--that was it. When PW spoke with Watson, she was living in the Apollo Hotel on Arch Street, which closed after a f ire last year. Her whereabouts are now unknown.

Source: Phony Philly, by Karen Abbott and Elisa Ludwig

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