Childhood and Early Career
She was born Rosetta Nubin in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, United States, to parents Katie Bell Nubin and Willis Atkins who were cotton pickers. Little is known of her father, although it is known that he was a singer. In 1921 Bell left Atkins to become a travelling evangelist for the Church of God in Christ (COGIC).
Tharpe began performing at the age of four, billed as "Little Rosetta Nubin, the singing and guitar playing miracle", accompanying her mother who played mandolin and preached at tent revivals throughout the South. Exposed to both blues and jazz both in the South and after her family moved to Chicago in the late 1920s, she played blues and jazz in private, while performing gospel music in public settings. Her unique style reflected those secular influences: she bent notes the way that blues and rock artists did and picked guitar like Memphis Minnie.
Tharpe also crossed over to secular music in other ways. After marrying COGIC preacher Thomas Thorpe (from which "Tharpe" is a misspelling) in 1934. The marriage was not a happy one, with Thorpe having been described as "a tyrant". In 1938 Tharpe left her husband and moved with her mother to New York City.
Read more about this topic: Sister Rosetta Tharpe
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