Early Life and Education
Hendricks was born in Evansville, Indiana, in May.11,1909 to Frank Hendricks, a lifelong learner with an eighth-grade education, and Melissa Belle (Logan) Hendricks, a graduate of Evansville's Frederick Douglass High School. He also had two siblings, Paul Lawrence and Dorothy Medesta. His love affair with music began when his father brought home a piano, quickly learning how to play additional instruments. In high school, he participated in band.
In 1924, Hendricks was graduated from the town's then-segregated Douglass High School, later rebuilt and renamed Lincoln High School. After taking several years off, working at local establishments, he enrolled at the Indiana State Teachers' College, now known as Indiana State University, in Terre Haute. Often diverted from his education for semesters at a time by a need to earn money and a desire to practice his musical craft, Hendricks' decade-long road to graduation was long. As well as taking jobs in local restaurants and hotels, Hendricks was able to play piano with bands in the area. In 1935, he joined the elite one percent of Black Americans with a college degree, having majored in science and music.
Read more about this topic: Belford Hendricks
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or education:
“Early to rise and early to bed makes a male healthy and wealthy and dead.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“It may be that the ignorant man, alone,
Has any chance to mate his life with life
That is the sensual, pearly spouse, the life
That is fluent in even the wintriest bronze.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“It’s fairly obvious that American education is a cultural flop. Americans are not a well-educated people culturally, and their vocational education often has to be learned all over again after they leave school and college. On the other hand, they have open quick minds and if their education has little sharp positive value, it has not the stultifying effects of a more rigid training.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)