Bobbie Gentry

Country singer/songwriter Bobbie Gentry was born Roberta Lee Streeter on July 27, 1944 in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. Gentry grew up in poverty on her grandparents' farm after her parents divorced when she was a little girl. She learned to play piano by watching the church pianist. Her grandmother traded a milk cow for a piano so Bobbie could practice regularly. She wrote her first song "My Dog Sergeant is a Good Dog" on the piano; she later used this song as a humorous part of her nightclub act. At age six, Gentry went to live with her father in Greenwood, Mississippi, where she attended elementary school. Bobbie next moved to Palm Springs, California to live with her mother. It was during this time she taught herself how to play the banjo, guitar, bass and vibes. She began performing at a country club while still in high school and graduated from Palm Valley School in 1960. At age 14, Gentry took her stage name from the 1952 movie Ruby Gentry (1952). She briefly worked as a dancer