Anne Murray - Early Life

Early Life

Morna Anne Murray was born June 20, 1945, in the coal-mining town of Springhill, Nova Scotia. Her father, James Carson Murray, was the town doctor. Her mother, Marion Margaret (née Burke) Murray, was a registered nurse who focused her life on raising her family and community charity work. Murray had five brothers.

After expressing an early interest in music, she studied piano for six years; by age fifteen, she began taking voice lessons. Every Saturday morning, she took a bus ride from Springhill to Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia for singing lessons. One of her earliest performances was of the song "Ave Maria" at her high school graduation in 1962.

Following high school, Murray attended Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax for one year. She later studied Physical Education at University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. After receiving her degree in 1966, she taught physical education at a high school in Summerside, Prince Edward Island for one year.

Murray married Bill Langstroth on June 20, 1975, her 30th birthday, and gave birth to two children: William (born 1976) and Dawn (born 1979), a singer/songwriter and artist who has recorded with her mother a number of times, including the duet "Let There Be Love" in 1999 for Murray's What A Wonderful World album. Anne and Dawn were featured in a mother-daughter duet of "Nobody Loves Me Like You Do" on Murray's hit 2008 U.S. CD (released in late 2007 in Canada), Anne Murray Duets: Friends & Legends, Murray's highest-charting release in nine years.