Editing Ginger Rogers (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Ginger Rogers Birthplace.jpg|thumb|100 W Moore St., Independence, Missouri, the birthplace of Ginger Rogers]]
Virginia Katherine McMath was born on July 16, 1911, in [[Independence, Missouri]], the only child of [[Lela E. Rogers|Lela Emogene Owens]], a newspaper reporter, and William Eddins McMath, an electrical engineer.<ref name="GingerMyStory">{{cite book| title=Ginger: My Story| url=https://archive.org/details/gingermystory00roge| url-access=registration| last=Rogers| first=Ginger| date=1991| publisher=HarperCollins| isbn=978-0-0615-6470-3| location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|9, 10}}<ref name="GingerMyStory" />{{rp|16}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSaMu4F06AQC&pg=PA551| title=Ginger Rogers| page=551| encyclopedia=Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth Century| first=Susan| last=Ware| year=2004| publisher=Harvard University Press| isbn=978-0-6740-1488-6}}</ref> Her maternal grandparents were Wilma Saphrona (''née'' Ball) and Walter Winfield Owens.<ref name="GingerMyStory2">{{cite book|last=Rogers|first=Ginger|url=https://archive.org/details/gingermystory00roge|title=Ginger: My Story|date=1991|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-0615-6470-3|location=New York|url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|3}} She was of Scottish, Welsh, and English ancestry.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://famouskin.com/pedigree.php?name=6411+ginger+rogers&ahnum=1| title=Ancestry of Ginger Rogers| website=Famous Kin.com}}</ref> Her mother gave birth to Ginger at home, having lost a previous child in a hospital.<ref name="GingerMyStory" />{{rp|11}} 
Rogers was raised a [[Christian Science|Christian Scientist]] and remained a lifelong adherent.

Her parents separated shortly after she was born.<ref name="GingerMyStory" />{{rp|1, 2, 11}}After unsuccessfully trying to reunite with his family, McMath kidnapped his daughter twice, and her mother divorced him soon thereafter.<ref name="GingerMyStory" />{{rp|7, 15}}<ref name="NewsKidnapping">{{cite news |title=Family History of Ginger Rogers, A Glamour Girl, Turns to Missouri |newspaper=The Maryville Daily Forum |access-date=27 February 2015 |url-access=subscription |page=4 |date=19 May 1944 |quote=The actress was kidnapped by her father two times after (their) separation. |volume=34 |number=295| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1882783/ginger_rogers_kidnapped_twice_by_father/| via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Rogers said that she never saw her natural father again.<ref name="GingerMyStory" />{{rp|15}}

In 1915, she was left with her grandparents, who lived in nearby [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]], while her mother made a trip to [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] in an effort to get an essay she had written made into a film.<ref name="GingerMyStory" />{{rp|19}} Lela succeeded and continued to write scripts for Fox Studios.<ref name="GingerMyStory" />{{rp|26–29}}

One of Rogers's young cousins had a hard time pronouncing "Virginia", giving her the nickname "Ginger".<ref>{{Cite web |date=1995-04-25 |title=OBITUARY Ginger Rogers |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-ginger-rogers-1617100.html |access-date=2022-07-28 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref>

When Rogers was nine years old, her mother married John Logan Rogers. Ginger took the surname Rogers, although she was never legally adopted. They lived in [[Fort Worth]]. Her mother became a theater critic for a local newspaper, the ''Fort Worth Record''. She attended, but did not graduate from, Fort Worth's Central High School (later renamed [[R. L. Paschal High School]].)

As a teenager, Rogers thought of becoming a school teacher, but with her mother's interest in Hollywood and the theater, her early exposure to the theater increased. Waiting for her mother in the wings of Ft. Worth's Majestic Theatre, she began to sing and dance along with the performers on stage.<ref>{{cite news| title=Ginger Rogers – Actress and Singer| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-london/plain/A42130333| work=BBC News| access-date=3 August 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140128025947/http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-london/plain/A42130333| archive-date=28 January 2014| url-status=dead}}</ref>