ABSTRACT
Early Life Ella Fitzgerald's reluctance to discuss family, friends, and personal history makes it almost impossible to give a definitive account of her early life, which has become the stuff of American myth. Although the place of Fitzgerald's birth is not disputed, the date of her birth has been the subject of some controversy. It has been argued that she was actually born in 1920 (a claim she neither confirmed nor denied) and thus was two years younger than is usually reported, the reason for this being the child labor laws that were in force when she began her professional career. Her early relationship with her mother has also been disputed: In some accounts, she is described as having been orphaned as a young child and reared by her aunt. Fitzgerald's own account disputes this rendition of her early life, however, and she indicated that her mother was a powerful force in her childhood.
