Editing Howlin' Wolf (section)

==Early life==
Chester Arthur Burnett was born on June 10, 1910, in [[White Station, Mississippi|White Station]],{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=4|ps=none}} near [[West Point, Mississippi]], to Gertrude Jones and Leon "Dock" Burnett.{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=5|ps=none}} He later said that his father was "Ethiopian", while Jones had [[Choctaw]] ancestry on her father's side.{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=5|ps=none}} He was named for [[Chester A. Arthur]], the 21st President of the United States.{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=4|ps=none}} The name "Howlin' Wolf" originated from Burnett's maternal grandfather, John Jones; Burnett had been squeezing his grandmother's chicks so hard he was likely to kill them, and his grandfather told him wolves would come and get him.{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=5|ps=none}} The blues historian [[Paul Oliver]] wrote that Burnett once claimed to have been given his nickname by his idol [[Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)|Jimmie Rodgers]].{{sfn|Oliver|1969|p=150}}

Burnett's parents separated when he was a year old.{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=6|ps=none}} Dock, who had worked seasonally as a farm laborer in the [[Mississippi Delta]], moved there permanently while Jones and Burnett moved to [[Monroe County, Mississippi|Monroe County]].{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=6|ps=none}} Jones and Burnett would sing together in the choir of the Life Boat Baptist Church near [[Gibson, Mississippi]], and Burnett would later claim that he got his musical talent from her.{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=6|ps=none}} Jones kicked Burnett out of the house, for unknown reasons, during the winter when he was a child.{{efn|{{harvnb|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=6|ps=none}} speculate various such reasons as Burnett's refusal to work the fields, his rejection of choir music in favor of singing the blues, that the half-Indian Jones thought Burnett was "too dark", and that Jones had met another man who didn't want Burnett around.}}{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=6|ps=none}} At the peak of his success, he returned from Chicago to see his mother in Mississippi and was driven to tears when she refused to take money offered by him, saying it was from his playing the "devil's music".

He moved in with his granduncle Will Young, who had a large household and treated him badly.{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|pp=6&ndash;7|ps=none}} While in the Young household he worked almost all day and did not receive an education at the school house.{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=8|ps=none}} When he was thirteen, he killed one of Young's hogs in a rage after the hog had caused him to ruin his dress clothes;{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=11|ps=none}} this enraged Young who then whipped him while chasing him on a mule.{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|pp=11&ndash;12|ps=none}} He then ran away and claimed to have walked {{convert|85|mi|km}} barefoot to join his father, where he finally found a happy home with his father's large family.{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=15|ps=none}} During this era he went by the name "John D." to dissociate himself from his past, a name by which several of his relatives would know him for the rest of his life.{{sfn|Segrest|Hoffman|2004|p=15|ps=none}}

His physique garnered him the nicknames "Big Foot Chester" and "Bull Cow" as a young man: he was {{convert|6|ft|3|in|cm}} tall and weighed {{convert|275|lb|}}.<ref name="SIZE">{{Cite magazine |date=January 1, 2023 |title=The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-singers-all-time-1234642307/howlin-wolf-3-1234643109/ |access-date=August 16, 2023 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref>