Born Eleanor Fagan in Baltimore, Maryland on April 7, 1915, to an unwed teenage mother, Billie Holiday's childhood was one of poverty. Her father, Clarence Holiday (a jazz guitarist) married her mother Sadie Fagan three years later. He never lived with the family, choosing his musical career over them. As a child, Billie borrowed her name from her favorite movie actress Billie Dove. Billie started working at a very young, running errands and cleaning a house of prostitutes. It was here that she first heard Louis Armstrong and Bassie Smith records through the open windows of the home she cleaned.
