ABSTRACT
Early Life Ray Charles Robinson, the first child of Aretha and Baily Robinson, was raised in Greenville, Florida, during the height of the Depression. After a twoyear undiagnosed disease (later suspected to be glaucoma), Charles went blind and, in 1937, was accepted as a charity case at the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind, where he learned Braille, typing, basket weaving, and mathematics. He was permitted to develop his musical skills by learning piano, clarinet, alto saxophone, and how to compose and arrange music in his head. He remained at St. Augustine until his mother's death in 1945, when he set out as a professional musician, first in Florida, then in Seattle, Washington, from 1948 to 1949.
