Editing Stevie Wonder (section)

== Early life ==
Wonder was born Stevland Hardaway Judkins in [[Saginaw, Michigan]], on May 13, 1950, the third of five children born to [[Lula Mae Hardaway]],<ref name="blindfaith">{{cite book |last1=Love |first1=Dennis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2I_vHgAACAAJ |title=Blind Faith: The Miraculous Journey of Lula Hardaway, Stevie Wonder's Mother |last2=Brown |first2=Stacy |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4165-7785-0}}</ref> and the second of Hardaway's two children with Calvin Judkins.<ref name= "Ribowski">Ribowski, Mark (2010).  ''Signed, Sealed, and Delivered: The Soulful Journey of Stevie Wonder''.  Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.<br>Hardaway had her first child, Stevie's half-brother Milton, prior to her relationship with Judkins; following her split with Judkins, she rekindled her relationship with Milton's father, coincidentally named Paul Hardaway, who by now had another child of his own – Stevie's stepbrother Larry – and with whom she went on to have two more children, Stevie's half-sister Renee and half-brother Timmy</ref> Wonder was born six weeks premature, a condition that, along with the oxygen-rich atmosphere in the hospital incubator, resulted in [[retinopathy of prematurity]], a disease that aborts eye growth and often causes the [[retina]]s to detach, which left him blind.<ref name="incubator">{{cite news|title=Stevie Wonder: Blind faith|work=[[The Independent]] |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/stevie-wonder-blind-faith-865838.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/stevie-wonder-blind-faith-865838.html |archive-date=May 25, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |date= July 12, 2008|access-date=July 29, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1011/30/lkl.01.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110708171546/http://www.cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1011/30/lkl.01.html |url-status=dead |archive-date= July 8, 2011 |title=Transcript of interview: Larry King and Stevie Wonder |date=November 30, 2010 |work=Larry King Live |publisher=[[CNN]] |access-date=January 4, 2011 }}</ref>

When Wonder was four, his mother divorced his father and moved with her three children to [[Detroit]]. Wonder attended Whitestone [[Baptist]] Church, where he sang in the choir and became a [[Solo (music)|soloist]] at age eight.<ref>{{cite book| url= https://archive.org/details/steviewonder00cons | url-access= registration |title= Stevie Wonder| first= Constanze |last= Elsner| date= December 29, 1977|publisher=Popular Library |via=Internet Archive|isbn= 9780445043244}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Smith |first1=Giles |title=The Enduring Otherworldliness of Stevie Wonder |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/03/13/realms-of-wonder |magazine=The New Yorker |date=March 5, 1995}}</ref> His mother later rekindled her relationship with her first child's father (whose surname was also coincidentally Hardaway),<ref name= "Ribowski"/> changed her name back to Lula Hardaway, and had two more children.

Wonder began playing instruments at an early age, including piano, harmonica, and drums. He formed a singing partnership with a friend; calling themselves Stevie and John, they played on street corners and occasionally at parties and dances.<ref>{{cite book| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=YNae0zmGow4C&pg=PA312 |page=312|title=Icons of R&B and Soul| first= Bob |last= Gulla |publisher= Greenwood Publishing Group|year= 2008|isbn=9780313340468}}</ref> When Stevie was signed by [[Motown]] in 1961, his surname was legally changed to Morris, which (according to Lula Mae Hardaway's authorized biography) was an old family name. [[Berry Gordy]] was responsible for creating the stage name of "Little Stevie Wonder".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/us/stevie-wonder-fast-facts/index.html | title=Stevie Wonder Fast Facts | website=[[CNN]] | date=June 7, 2013 }}</ref>

Wonder attended Fitzgerald Elementary School in Detroit.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.aph.org/stevie-wonders-trail-to-braille/|title=Stevie Wonder's Trail to Braille|publisher=[[American Printing House for the Blind|American Printing House]]|date=April 25, 2019|access-date=February 20, 2022}}</ref> After his first album was released, ''[[The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie]]'' (1962), he enrolled in [[Michigan School for the Blind]] in [[Lansing, Michigan]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Stevie Wonder: 'I'm going to take a break'; will have kidney transplant this September |first=Susan |last=Whitall |date=July 7, 2019 |url=https://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/2019/07/06/stevie-wonder-im-going-take-break-have-kidney-transplant-september/1666635001/ |website=Detroit News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Devereaux |first1=Brad |title=Saginaw native Stevie Wonder is 65 and here are 6 facts about him |url=https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/2015/05/stevie_wonder_born_in_saginaw.html |website=mlive.com |access-date=August 5, 2019 |date=May 13, 2015}}</ref>