Editing Édith Piaf (section)

== Early life ==
Édith Piaf's birth certificate indicates she was born in Paris on 19 December 1915, at the [[Hôpital Tenon]] hospital.<ref name="rfimusique">{{cite web |title = Biography: Édith Piaf |url = http://www.rfimusique.com/siteen/biographie/biographie_6057.asp |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20030227100205/http://www.rfimusique.com/siteEn/biographie/biographie_6057.asp |url-status = dead |archive-date = 27 February 2003 |publisher = Radio France Internationale Musique |access-date = 3 September 2009}}</ref>

Her birth name was Édith Giovanna Gassion.<ref name="csmonitor0707">{{cite news | first=Peter | last=Rainer | title='La Vie en rose': Édith Piaf's encore | date=8 June 2007 | url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0608/p14s03-almo.html | work=The Christian Science Monitor | location=Boston | access-date=3 September 2009 | archive-date=10 May 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200510012925/https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0608/p14s03-almo.html | url-status=live }}</ref> The name "Édith" was inspired by British nurse [[Edith Cavell]], who was executed 2 months before Édith's birth for helping French soldiers escape from German captivity during World War I.<ref>{{cite news|first=Thirza |last=Vallois |title=Two Paris Love Stories |url=http://www.paris.org/Kiosque/feb98/love.html |publisher=Paris Kiosque |date=February 1998 |access-date=9 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714183814/http://www.paris.org/Kiosque/feb98/love.html |archive-date=14 July 2007 }}</ref> Twenty years later, Édith's stage surname ''Piaf'' was created by her first promoter, based on a French term for '[[Old World sparrow|sparrow]]'.<ref name="yahoomusicbio" />

Édith's father [[Louis Alphonse Gassion]] (1881–1944) was an acrobatic street performer from [[Normandy]] with a theater background. Louis's father was Victor Alphonse Gassion (1850–1928) and his mother was Léontine Louise Descamps (1860–1937), who ran a [[brothel]] in Normandy and was known professionally as "Maman Tine".<ref name="vansun">{{cite news | first=Joe | last=Ray | title=Édith Piaf and Jacques Brel live again in Paris: The two legendary singers are making a comeback in cafes and theatres in the City of Light | date=11 October 2003 | url=http://joearay2.tripod.com/vancouversun/brel_et_piaf.html | work=Vancouver Sun| location=Canada | page=F3 | access-date=18 July 2007 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://archive.today/20121211060308/http://joearay2.tripod.com/vancouversun/brel_et_piaf.html | archive-date=11 December 2012}}</ref> Édith's mother, [[Line Marsa|Annetta Giovanna Maillard]] (1895–1945) was a singer and circus performer born in Italy who performed under the stage name "Line Marsa".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Souvais |first=Michel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=693PZnGRVVkC&pg=PA144 |title=Arletty, confidences à son secrétaire |trans-title=Arletty, confidences to her secretary |publisher=Editions Publibook |isbn=978-2-7483-8735-3 |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Monique Lange (auteur de Les cabines de bain) |quote=Elle a écrit deux biographies : ... et "Histoire de Piaf "(1988) |url=https://www.babelio.com/auteur/Monique-Lange/32946 |access-date=20 February 2023 |website=Babelio |language=fr |archive-date=16 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230716074417/https://www.babelio.com/auteur/Monique-Lange/32946 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Monique Lange et Edmonde Charles-Roux à propos d' Edith Piaf &#124; INA |trans-title=Monique Lange and Edmonde Charles-Roux on Edith Piaf at INA |url=https://www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/video/i00013665/monique-lange-et-edmonde-charles-roux-a-propos-d-edith-piaf|language=fr|access-date=20 February 2023|archive-date=20 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230220171902/https://www.ina.fr/ina-eclaire-actu/video/i00013665/monique-lange-et-edmonde-charles-roux-a-propos-d-edith-piaf|url-status=live}}</ref> Annetta's father was Auguste Eugène Maillard (1866–1912) of French descent and Édith's grandmother was [[Emma Saïd Ben Mohamed|Emma (Aïcha) Saïd Ben Mohammed]] (1876–1930), an acrobat of [[Kabyle people|Kabyle]] and Italian descent.<ref name="larousse">{{cite web| title=Édith Giovanna Gassion dite Édith Piaf |trans-title=Édith Giovanna Gassion known as Édith Piaf | website=Larousse | url=https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/%C3%89dith_Giovanna_Gassion_dite_%C3%89dith_Piaf/138051 | language=fr | access-date=1 September 2024 | archive-date=1 September 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240901212755/https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/personnage/%C3%89dith_Giovanna_Gassion_dite_%C3%89dith_Piaf/138051 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Death certificate Year 1890, France, Montluçon (03), 1890, N°501, 2E 191 194</ref> Annetta and Louis divorced on 4 June 1929.<ref>Her grandmother, Emma Saïd Ben Mohamed, was born in Mogador, Morocco, in December 1876, " Emma Saïd ben Mohamed, d'origine kabyle et probablement connue au Maroc où renvoie son acte de naissance établi à Mogador, le 10 décembre 1876 ", Pierre Duclos and Georges Martin, ''Piaf, biographie'', Éditions du Seuil, 1993, Paris, p.&nbsp;41 {{ISBN|9782020164535}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bret |first=David |quote=Her mother, half-Italian, half-Berber |author-link=David Bret |title=Piaf: A Passionate Life |publisher=Robson Books |date=1998 |p=2 |isbn=9781906217204}}</ref>

Piaf's mother abandoned her at birth, and she lived for a short time with her maternal grandmother, Emma (Aïcha), in Bethandy, [[Normandy]]. When her father enlisted with the French Army in 1916 to fight in [[World War I]], he took her to his mother, at her brothel in [[Bernay, Eure|Bernay, Normandy]]. There, prostitutes helped look after Piaf.<ref name="yahoomusicbio" /> The bordello had two floors and seven rooms, and the prostitutes were not very numerous – "about ten poor girls", as she later described. In fact, five or six were permanent while a dozen others would join the brothel during market days and other busy days. The sub-mistress of the brothel was called "Madam Gaby" and Piaf considered her almost like family; later, she became godmother of Denise Gassion, Piaf's half-sister born in 1931.<ref name="Belleret">{{Cite book |last=Belleret |first=Robert |title=Piaf, un mythe français |trans-title=Piaf, a French myth |publisher=Fayard |date=2013 |isbn=9782213668819}}</ref>

From the age of three to seven, Piaf was allegedly blind as a result of [[keratitis]]. According to one of her biographers, she recovered her sight after her grandmother's prostitutes pooled money to accompany her on a pilgrimage honouring Saint [[Thérèse of Lisieux]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Paris' Daughter: The Raw Truth Behind Edith Piaf's Legend |url=https://teyxo.com/lifestyle/paris-daughter-the-raw-truth-behind-edith-piafs-legend/ |website=TEYXO Style |access-date=12 May 2025 |date=29 March 2025 |archive-date=21 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250121123805/https://teyxo.com/lifestyle/paris-daughter-the-raw-truth-behind-edith-piafs-legend/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Piaf claimed this resulted in a miraculous healing.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Piaf |first=Simone |last=Berteaut |publisher=Allen & Unwin  |date=1970 |ISBN=978-0060103132}}</ref>