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Billie Holiday The artist known as Billie Holiday, and later nicknamed Lady Day was born as Eleanora Fagan, in 1915. Billie’s childhood was a sad one. Her parents were never married and her father,Clarence Holiday who played guitar with Fletcher Henderson abandoned Billie and her mother early on (geocites). At some point in her childhood, her mother moved to New York, leaving her to care for her relatives who, according to Holiday, mistreated her. She quit school after the fifth grade, was sexually assaulted at the age of ten and was jailed for prostitution in her early teens (artandculture). One would think Billie’s tragic childhood would leave her in poverty for the rest of her life, but luckily her amazing voice and intense lyrics would boost her to fame. When Billie was eighteen she moved to New York to live with her mother. .