Editing Chuck Berry (section)

== Early life ==
Charles Edward Anderson Berry was born on October 18, 1926, in [[St. Louis]], the youngest child of Henry William Berry and Martha Bell Berry (née Banks).<ref name="Chuck Berry">{{cite news |url=http://www.history-of-rock.com/berry.htm |title=Chuck Berry |publisher=history-of-rock.com |access-date=June 3, 2010 |archive-date=November 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104065241/http://www.history-of-rock.com/berry.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> He grew up in the north St. Louis neighbourhood known as [[The Ville, St. Louis|the Ville]], an area where many middle-class people lived. His father, Henry (1895–1987) was a contractor and deacon of a nearby [[Baptist]] church; his mother, Martha (1894–1980) was a certified public school principal.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gates |first1=Henry Louis Jr. |last2=Higginbotham |first2=Evelyn Brooks |title=African American Lives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3dXw6gR2GgkC&q=Martha+Bell+(Banks)+Henry+William+Berry&pg=PA71 |url-status=live |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=71 |date=April 29, 2004 |access-date=March 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210216231948/https://books.google.com/books?id=3dXw6gR2GgkC&q=Martha+Bell+%28Banks%29+Henry+William+Berry&pg=PA71 |archive-date=February 16, 2021 |isbn=9780199882861}}</ref> Berry's upbringing allowed him to pursue his interest in music from an early age. He gave his first public performance in 1941 while still a student at [[Sumner High School (St. Louis)|Sumner High School]] in St. Louis;<ref>{{cite news |last=Weinraub |first=Bernard |title=Sweet Tunes, Fast Beats and a Hard Edge |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=February 23, 2003 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/23/us/sweet-tunes-fast-beats-and-a-hard-edge.html |access-date=December 11, 2007 |quote=A significant moment in his early life was a musical performance in 1941 at Sumner High School, which had a middle-class black student body. |archive-date=December 13, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091213080212/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/23/us/sweet-tunes-fast-beats-and-a-hard-edge.html |url-status=live}}</ref> he was still a student there in 1944, when he was arrested for [[armed robbery]] after robbing three shops in [[Kansas City, Missouri]], and then stealing a car at gunpoint with some friends.<ref name="SweetTunes">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/23/us/sweet-tunes-fast-beats-and-a-hard-edge.html|title=Sweet Tunes, Fast Beats and a Hard Edge&nbsp;— Series|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=February 18, 2010|first=Bernard|last=Weinraub|date=February 23, 2003|archive-date=December 13, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091213080212/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/23/us/sweet-tunes-fast-beats-and-a-hard-edge.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Gulla|first=Bob|title=Guitar Gods: The 25 Players Who Made Rock History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DL3I9qQWdeAC&pg=PA32|access-date=February 6, 2014|year=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313358067|page=32|archive-date=June 27, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627144302/http://books.google.com/books?id=DL3I9qQWdeAC&pg=PA32|url-status=live}}</ref> Berry's account in his autobiography is that his car broke down and he flagged down a passing car and stole it at gunpoint with a non-functional pistol.<ref>{{harvtxt|Pegg|2003|p=14}}.</ref> He was convicted and sent to the Intermediate Reformatory for Young Men (now the [[Algoa Correctional Center]]) in [[Jefferson City, Missouri]],<ref name="Chuck Berry"/> where he formed a singing quartet and did some boxing.<ref name=SweetTunes/> The singing group became competent enough that the authorities allowed it to perform outside the detention facility.<ref>{{harvtxt|Berry|1988|pp=57–72}}</ref> Berry was released from the reformatory on his 21st birthday in 1947.

On October 28, 1948, Berry married Themetta "Toddy" Suggs, who gave birth to Darlin Ingrid Berry on October 3, 1950.<ref name="Early1998">{{cite book|last=Early|first=Gerald Lyn|title=Ain't but a Place: An Anthology of African American Writings About St. Louis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRLhcVs_pJUC&pg=PA166|access-date=February 6, 2014|year=1998|publisher=Missouri History Museum|isbn=9781883982287|page=166|archive-date=June 27, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140627144312/http://books.google.com/books?id=IRLhcVs_pJUC&pg=PA166|url-status=live}}</ref> Chuck supported his family by taking various jobs in St. Louis, working briefly as a factory worker at two automobile assembly plants and as a janitor in the apartment building where he and his wife lived. Afterwards, he trained as a beautician at the Poro College of Cosmetology, founded by [[Annie Malone|Annie Turnbo Malone]].<ref>{{harvtxt|Pegg|2003|pp=20–22}}.</ref> He was doing well enough by 1950 to buy a "small three room brick cottage with a bath" on Whittier Street,<ref name=page179>{{harvtxt|Early|1998|p=179}}.</ref> which is now listed as the [[Chuck Berry House]] on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://outside.in/greater-ville-st-louis-mo/chuck-berrys-house |title=News About Chuck Berry's House in Greater Ville, St. Louis, MO|publisher=outside.in|access-date=June 16, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721185424/http://outside.in/greater-ville-st-louis-mo/chuck-berrys-house |archive-date=July 21, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>