Early Life
Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in Santa Barbara, California to Keith, a West Coast scenester in the 1960s, and Mary Hudson (née Perry), an evangelist who grew up in Southern California, attended Berkeley, and had a "tempestuous" first marriage in Zimbabwe. Perry has Portuguese, German, Irish, and English ancestry. She is the second child of two pastors. She has an older sister named Angela Hudson and a younger brother named David Hudson. Perry's uncle was director Frank Perry (who was her mother's half-brother).
As a child, Perry attended Christian schools and camps. Her parents were pastors, and she was incorporated into their ministry, singing in the church between the ages of nine and seventeen. She grew up listening to gospel music, and in an interview she said, "Growing up I wasn’t really allowed to listen to a whole lot of what my mom would call, secular music," She learned how to dance in a recreation building in Santa Barbara. She was taught by seasoned dancers and began with swing, Lindy Hop, and jitterbug. She took her GED after her first year at Dos Pueblos High School and decided to leave school in the pursuit of a career in music. Perry initially started singing "because was at that point in childhood where was copycatting sister and everything she ." Her sister practiced with cassette tapes, while Perry took the tapes herself when her sister was not around. She rehearsed the songs and performed them in front of her parents, who suggested she take vocal coaching. She grabbed the opportunity and began taking lessons at the age of nine and continued until she was sixteen.
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