Marshall Applewhite - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Marshall Herff Applewhite was born in Spur, Texas, on May 17, 1931, to Marshall Herff Applewhite Sr. and Louise Applewhite; he had three siblings. The son of a Presbyterian minister, Applewhite became very religious as a child.

Applewhite attended Corpus Christi High School and Austin College; at the latter school, he was active in several student organizations and was moderately religious. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1952 and subsequently enrolled at Union Presbyterian Seminary to study theology, hoping to become a minister. He married Anne Pearce around that time, and they later had two children. Early in his seminary studies, he decided to leave the school to pursue a career in music, becoming the music director of a Presbyterian church in North Carolina. He was a baritone singer and enjoyed spirituals and the music of Handel. In 1954, he was drafted by the United States Army and served in Austria and New Mexico as a member of the Army Signal Corps. He left the military in 1956 and enrolled at the University of Colorado, where he earned a master's degree in music and focused on musical theater.

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