PLEASANT GROVE, March 4 (UPI) — Legendary soul singer Gladys Knight serenaded her version of “Happy Birthday” to a Utah police officer Wednesday night after the car she was in was pulled over for speeding.
Pleasant Grove police officer Paul Rogerson pulled over a car about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City in which Knight was a passenger. Knight was being driven to a choir performance at a nearby Mormon church.
As Rogerson checked the driver’s ID, she told the officer she was taking Gladys Knight to the performance.
Rogerson’s wife was with him while celebrating the officer’s birthday, she told the driver it was his birthday and that they were fans. His wife made a personal request for Knight, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and multi-Grammy winner, to sing to him. Knight obliged singing Happy Birthday and taking a picture with the officer.
Rogerson then let the driver go with a warning.
Knight converted to Mormonism in the late 1990s. She lives in Las Vegas but had traveled to Utah after being invited to the help with the choir, a spokeswoman for Knight said.
Gladys Knight and the Pips had big hits in the 1960s and 1970s with “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Midnight Train to Georgia.”
