Editing Muddy Waters (section)

==Early life==
Muddy Waters' place and date of birth are not conclusively known. He stated that he was born in 1915 at [[Rolling Fork, Mississippi|Rolling Fork]] in [[Sharkey County, Mississippi]], but other evidence suggests that he was born in the unincorporated community of Jug's Corner, in neighboring [[Issaquena County, Mississippi|Issaquena County]], in 1913.{{sfn|Gordon|2002|p=3}} In the 1930s and 1940s, before his rise to fame, the year of his birth was reported as 1913 on his marriage license, recording notes, and musicians' union card. A 1955 interview in the ''[[Chicago Defender]]'' is the earliest in which he stated 1915 as the year of his birth, and he continued to state that year in interviews from that point onward. The 1920 census lists him as five years old as of March 6, 1920. The Social Security Death Index, relying on the [[Social Security card]] application submitted after his move to [[Chicago]] in the mid-1940s, lists him as being born April 4, 1913. His gravestone gives his birth year as 1915.<ref>[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/stairway-to-heaven-240073/muddy-waters-book-of-dead-gallery-rs-983-9-8-05-large-17311/ Image at ''Rolling Stone'']</ref>

His grandmother, Della Grant, raised him after his mother died shortly after his birth. Grant gave him the nickname "Muddy" at an early age because he loved to play in the muddy water of nearby [[Deer Creek (Mississippi)|Deer Creek]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Chilton|first1=Martin|title=Muddy Waters: Celebrating a Great Blues Musician|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/muddy-waters-celebrating-a-great-blues-musician/|access-date=January 25, 2017|work=[[The Telegraph (UK)|The Telegraph]]}}</ref> "Waters" was added years later, as he began to play harmonica and perform locally in his early teens.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/history/delta/blues/people/muddy_waters.htm |title=Trail of the Hellhound: Muddy Waters |publisher=U.S. [[National Park Service]]|access-date=December 24, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140702223742/http://www.nps.gov/history/delta/blues/people/muddy_waters.htm |archive-date=July 2, 2014}}</ref> He taught himself to play harmonica.<ref>{{cite web|title=Muddy Waters |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muddy-Waters|accessdate=July 19, 2022}}</ref> The remains of the cabin on Stovall Plantation where he lived in his youth are now at the [[Delta Blues Museum]] in [[Clarksdale, Mississippi]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Muddy Waters Cabin and Statue|publisher=[[Delta Blues Museum]] |url=https://www.deltabluesmuseum.org/muddycabin.asp|access-date=January 25, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=What's on View at the Delta Blues Museum|url=https://www.arts.gov/blue-star/2011/whats-view-delta-blues-museum|publisher=[[National Endowment for the Arts]]|access-date=January 25, 2017}}</ref>

He had his first introduction to music in church: "I used to belong to church. I was a good Baptist, singing in the church. So I got all of my good moaning and trembling going on for me right out of church,"{{sfn|Szatmary|2014|p=8}} he recalled. By the time he was 17, he had purchased his first guitar. "I sold the last horse that we had. Made about fifteen dollars for him, gave my grandmother seven dollars and fifty cents, I kept seven-fifty and paid about two-fifty for that guitar. It was a [[Stella (guitar)|Stella]]. The people ordered them from [[Sears-Roebuck]] in Chicago."{{sfn|Szatmary|2014|p=8}} He started playing his songs in joints near his hometown, mostly on a plantation owned by Colonel [[William Howard Stovall]].{{sfn|Palmer|1982|p=4}}