Editing Gloria Gaynor (section)

==Early life==
Gloria Fowles was born in [[Newark, New Jersey]],<ref name="rosenfeld">{{cite news|last=Rosenfeld|first=Stacey|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/497909018|title=Gaynor recalls how she 'survived' her lifestyle|date=March 16, 2012|work=Cliffside Park Citizen|access-date=November 21, 2019}}</ref> to Daniel Fowles and Queenie Mae Proctor. Her grandmother lived nearby and was involved in her upbringing.<ref>{{cite web|last=Blanz|first=Sharla|url=http://njmonthly.com/articles/best-of-Jersey/survivor.html|title="I Will Survive" singer Gloria Gaynor graduated from Southside High School in Newark|publisher=Njmonthly.com 1961|date=December 19, 2007|access-date=December 27, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120702164451/http://njmonthly.com/articles/best-of-Jersey/survivor.html|archive-date=July 2, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> "There was always music in our house", Gaynor wrote in her autobiography ''I Will Survive''. She enjoyed listening to the radio, and to records by [[Nat King Cole]] and [[Sarah Vaughan]]. Her father played the [[ukulele]] and guitar and sang professionally in nightclubs with a group called Step 'n' Fetchit. Gloria grew up as a [[tomboy]]; she had five brothers and one sister. Her brothers sang [[gospel music|gospel]] and formed a quartet with a friend.

Gaynor was not allowed to sing with the all-male group, nor was her younger brother Arthur, as Gloria was a girl and Arthur was too young. Arthur later acted as a tour manager for Gaynor. The family was relatively poor, but Gaynor recalls the house being filled with laughter and happiness, and the dinner table being open to neighborhood friends. They moved to a [[housing project]] in 1960, where Gaynor attended [[Malcolm X Shabazz High School|South Side High School]]; she graduated in 1961.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cdm17229.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17229coll68/id/21605|title=South Side High School Yearbook - Page 43|website=cdm17229.contentdm.oclc.org|language=en|access-date=March 12, 2020|archive-date=August 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801082034/https://cdm17229.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17229coll68/id/21605|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Shapiro, Michael M. [https://www.tapinto.net/sections/region/articles/essex-county-executive-divincenzo-and-newark-coun "Essex County Executive DiVincenzo and Newark Council President Crump Welcome Gloria Gaynor Home to Essex County"], TAPinto.net, August 24, 2020. Accessed May 8, 2020. "Gloria Gaynor was born at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, graduated from South Side High School (now known as Shabazz) in 1961 and often attended Metropolitan Baptist Church in Newark with her family."</ref>

"All through my young life I wanted to sing, although nobody in my family knew it", Gaynor wrote in her autobiography.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Gaynor|first=Gloria|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjauAgAAQBAJ&q=%22All+through+my+young+life+I+wanted+to+sing%2C+although+nobody+in+my+family+knew+it%22&pg=PT40|title=I Will Survive: The Book|date=2014|publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4668-6595-2|language=en}}</ref> Gaynor began singing in a nightclub in Newark, where she was recommended to a local band by a neighbor. After several years of performing in local clubs and along the East Coast, Gaynor began her recording career in 1971 at [[Columbia Records]].<ref name=":0" />