Editing Billie Holiday (section)

===1915–1929: Childhood===
Eleanora Fagan{{Sfn|Clarke,|2002|p=9}}{{Sfn|"About Billie Holiday,"|2002}} was born on April 7, 1915,{{Sfn|"Billie Holiday Biography"}} in [[Philadelphia]] to [[African Americans|African American]] unwed teenage couple [[Clarence Holiday|Clarence Halliday]] and Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan (née Harris). Her mother moved to Philadelphia at age 19,{{Sfn|O'Meally,|1991|p=64}} after she was evicted from her parents' home in the [[Sandtown-Winchester, Baltimore|Sandtown-Winchester]] neighborhood of [[Baltimore]], Maryland, for becoming pregnant. With no support from her parents, she made arrangements with her older, married half-sister, Eva Miller, for Holiday to stay with her in Baltimore. 

Not long after Holiday was born, her father abandoned his family to pursue a career as a jazz banjo player and guitarist.{{Sfn|Dufour,|1999|pp=40–42}} Some historians have disputed Holiday's paternity, as a copy of her birth certificate in the Baltimore archives lists her father as "Frank DeViese". Other historians consider this an anomaly, probably inserted by a hospital or government worker.{{Sfn|Clarke,|2002|p=xiii}} DeViese lived in Philadelphia, and Sadie, then known by her maiden name Harris, may have met him through her work. Harris married Philip Gough in 1920,<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 2, 2014 |title=Billie Holiday Biography |url=https://www.biography.com/musician/billie-holiday |access-date=November 30, 2022 |website=Biography |publisher=A&E Television Networks |quote="Sadie married Philip Gough in 1920..."}}</ref> but the marriage only lasted a few years.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Randolph |first=Elizabeth |date=2021-03-22 |title=Who Gave Billie Holiday the Nickname Lady Day? |url=https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/gave-billie-holiday-nickname-lady-day.html/ |access-date=2024-05-21 |website=Showbiz Cheat Sheet |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:Billie Holiday 1917.jpg|thumb|upright|Holiday, aged two, in 1917]]
Holiday grew up in Baltimore and had a very difficult childhood. Her mother often took what were then known as "transportation jobs", serving on passenger railroads.{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|pp=21–22}} Holiday was raised largely by Eva Miller's mother-in-law, Martha Miller, and suffered from her mother's absences and being in others' care for her first decade of life.{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|pp=18–23}} Holiday's autobiography, ''[[Lady Sings the Blues (book)|Lady Sings the Blues]]'', published in 1956, is inconsistent regarding details of her early life, but much was confirmed by [[Stuart Nicholson (jazz historian)|Stuart Nicholson]] in his 1995 biography of the singer.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

At the age of nine Holiday attended a Catholic school which she frequently skipped school at [[Saint Frances Academy (Baltimore)|Saint Frances Academy]] in Baltimore, which resulted in her being brought before the juvenile court at age nine.{{Sfn|Ripatrazone, August 14,|2018}} She was sent to the House of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic [[reform school]] for girls, where the nuns locked her in a room with a dead girl overnight as punishment for misbehavior. The experience traumatized her, and for years she would "dream about it and wake up hollering and screaming".<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Meares |first1=Hadley |title=Good Morning Heartache: The Life and Blues of Billie Holiday |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/02/billie-holiday-biography-lady-sings-the-blues |magazine=Vanity Fair |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207153954/https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/02/billie-holiday-biography-lady-sings-the-blues |archive-date=December 7, 2021 |date=February 8, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="book1956">{{cite book |last1=Holiday |last2=Dufty |title=Lady Sings the Blues |date=1956 |page=118 |quote=They had no more business putting me in that Catholic institution. . . . For years I used to dream about it and wake up hollering and screaming. My God, it's terrible what something like this does to you. It takes years and years to get over it; it haunts you and haunts you.}}</ref> After nine months, she was released on October 3, 1925, to her mother. Sadie had opened a restaurant, the East Side Grill, and they worked long hours there. She dropped out of school at age 11.{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|pp=22–24}}

On December 24, 1926, Harris came home to discover a neighbor attempting to rape Holiday. She successfully fought back, and he was arrested. Officials sent Holiday back to the House of the Good Shepherd under [[protective custody]] as a state witness in the rape case.{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|p=25}} Holiday was released in February 1927, when she was nearly 12. She found a job running errands in a [[brothel]],{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|p=27}} and she scrubbed [[Culture of Baltimore#Marble steps|marble steps]] as well as kitchen and bathroom floors of neighborhood homes.{{Sfn|Eff,|2013|p=63}} Around this time, she first heard the records of [[Louis Armstrong]] and [[Bessie Smith]]. In particular, Holiday cited "[[West End Blues]]" as an intriguing influence, pointing specifically to the [[scat singing|scat]] section duet with the clarinet as her favorite part.{{Sfn|Brothers,|2014|p=298}} By the end of 1928, Holiday's mother moved to Harlem, New York, again leaving Holiday with Martha Miller.{{Sfn|Nicholson,|1995|p=31}} By early 1929, Holiday had joined her mother in Harlem.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}