Betty Carter - Early Life

Early Life

Carter was born in Flint, Michigan and grew up in Detroit, where her father led a church choir. As a child, Carter was raised to be extremely independent and to not expect nurturing from her family. Even thirty years after leaving home, Carter was still very aware and affected by the home life that she was raised in, and has been quoted saying,

“I have been far removed from my immediate family. There’s been no real contact of phone calls home every week to find out how everybody is...As far as my family is concerned, it’s been a lonesome trek...It’s probably just as much my fault as it is theirs, and I can’t blame anybody for it. But there was no real closeness, where the family urged me on, or said... ‘We’re proud’...and all that. No, no...none of that happened."

Despite the isolation that Carter felt from her family due to their lack of support, it is possible to attribute her fighting spirit and determination to make it in the music business to this sense of abandonment, leading her to be the legend that she is today. She studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory at the age of fifteen, but did not exceed a modest level of expertise. At the age of sixteen, Carter began singing. As her parents were not big proponents of her pursuing a singing career, Carter would sneak out at night to audition for amateur shows. After winning first place at her first amateur competition, Carter felt as though she were being accepted into the music world and decided that she must pursue it tirelessly. When Carter began performing live, she was too young to be admitted into bars, so she obtained a forged birth certificate to gain entry in order to perform.