Editing Woody Guthrie (section)

==Early life==

[[File:OKMap-doton-Okemah.PNG|alt=A white map of Oklahoma with a red dot in the center|thumb|Okemah in Oklahoma]]
[[File:Guthrie house.jpg|thumb|alt=A simple house|Woody Guthrie's [[Okfuskee County, Oklahoma]], childhood home as it appeared in 1979]]

Guthrie was born July 14, 1912, in [[Okemah, Oklahoma|Okemah]], a small town in [[Okfuskee County, Oklahoma]], the son of Nora Belle (née Sherman) and Charles Edward Guthrie.<ref name="Reitwiesner">Reitwiesner, William Addams. [http://www.wargs.com/other/guthrie.html Ancestry of Arlo Guthrie.] Retrieved on November 7, 2007.</ref> His parents named him after [[Woodrow Wilson]], then Governor of New Jersey and the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] candidate who was elected as President of the United States in [[1912 United States presidential election|fall 1912]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8qzmNhQ2lkAC&pg=PA11|page=11|first=Ed|last=Cray|date=2006|title= Ramblin Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie|publisher= W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=9780393343083}}</ref> Charles Guthrie was an industrious businessman, owning at one time up to {{nowrap|30 plots}} of land in Okfuskee County.<ref name="Ed Cray 2006 16"/> He was actively involved in Oklahoma politics and was a conservative Democratic candidate for office in the county. Charles Guthrie was reportedly involved in the 1911 [[lynching of Laura and L. D. Nelson]].<ref name="Jackson136">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mJiFRoe04UMC&pg=PA136|page=136|title=Prophet Singer: The Voice and Vision of Woody Guthrie|author= Mark Allan Jackson|publisher= University Press of Mississippi|date= 2008|isbn=9781604731460}}</ref> (Woody Guthrie wrote three songs about the event in the 1960s. He said that his father, Charles, became a member of the [[Ku Klux Klan]] during its revival beginning in 1915.<ref name=Jackson136/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Dont_Kill_My_Baby_and_My_Son.htm|title= Lyrics: Don't Kill My Baby and My Son|work=woodyguthrie.org|first=Woody|last=Guthrie|year= 1966| access-date =August 25, 2010}}</ref>)

Three significant fires impacted Guthrie's early life. In 1909, one fire caused the loss of his family's home in Okemah a month after it was completed.<ref name="Ed Cray 2006 16" /> When Guthrie was seven, his sister Clara died after setting her clothes on fire during an argument with her mother,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8qzmNhQ2lkAC&pg=PA18|page=18|first=Ed|last=Cray|date=2006|title= Ramblin Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie|publisher= W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=9780393343083}}</ref> and, later, in 1927, their father was severely burned in a fire at home.<ref>{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/ramblinman00edcr/page/30 30]|first=Ed|last=Cray|date=2004|title= Ramblin Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie|url=https://archive.org/details/ramblinman00edcr|url-access=registration|publisher= W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=9780393047592}}</ref> Guthrie's mother, Nora, was afflicted with [[Huntington's disease]],<ref name="Celebrity Diagnosis">{{cite web |url=http://www.celebritydiagnosis.com/2012/07/happy-100th-birthday-woody-guthrie/ |title=Happy 100th Birthday Woody Guthrie! |publisher=Celebrity Diagnosis |date=July 14, 2012 |access-date=December 18, 2012 |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923201614/http://www.celebritydiagnosis.com/2012/07/happy-100th-birthday-woody-guthrie/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> although the family did not know this at the time. What they could see was [[dementia]] and muscular degeneration.<ref>Klein, ''Woody Guthrie'', pp.&nbsp;26,&nbsp;32,&nbsp;39</ref>

When Woody was 14, Nora was committed to the Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane. At the time his father Charles was living and working in [[Pampa, Texas]], to repay debts from unsuccessful real estate deals. Woody and his siblings were on their own in Oklahoma; they relied on their eldest brother Roy for support. The 14-year-old Woody Guthrie worked odd jobs around Okemah, begging meals and sometimes sleeping at the homes of family friends.

Guthrie had a natural affinity for music, learning old ballads and [[English folk music|traditional English]] and [[Scottish folk music|Scottish songs]] from the parents of friends.<ref name=Clay28/> Guthrie befriended an African-American [[Shoeshiner|shoeshine boy]] named George, who played blues on his harmonica. After listening to George play, Guthrie bought his own harmonica and began playing along with him.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Common Ground|title=Ear Players|last=Guthrie|first=Woody|year=1942|issue=Spring|page=32}}</ref><ref>Guthrie's interview with [[Alan Lomax]] at the [[Library of Congress]] Recording Sessions, as recorded in Cray, ''Ramblin Man'', p.&nbsp;28.</ref> He used to busk for money and food.<ref name="Clay28">{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/ramblinman00edcr/page/28 28]|first=Ed|last=Cray|date=2004|title= Ramblin Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie|url=https://archive.org/details/ramblinman00edcr|url-access=registration|publisher= W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=9780393047592}}</ref> Although Guthrie did not do well as a student and dropped out of high school in his senior year before graduation, his teachers described him as bright. He was an avid reader on a wide range of topics.<ref name="Clay44">{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/ramblinman00edcr/page/44 44]|first=Ed|last=Cray|date=2004|title= Ramblin Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie|url=https://archive.org/details/ramblinman00edcr|url-access=registration|publisher= W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=9780393047592}}</ref>

In 1929, Guthrie's father sent for Woody to join him in Texas,<ref>{{cite web|title=Guthrie, Woodrow Wilson (1912–1967)|url=http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=GU006|publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society|access-date=September 8, 2016}}</ref> but little changed for the aspiring musician. Guthrie, then 18, was reluctant to attend high school classes in Pampa; he spent most of his time learning songs by [[busking]] on the streets and reading in the library at Pampa's city hall. He regularly played at dances with his father's half-brother Jeff Guthrie, a fiddle player.<ref name=Clay44/> His mother died in 1930 of complications of Huntington's disease while still in the Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane.