Woody (born Woodrow Wilson Guthrie, after the Democratic Presidential nominee) Guthrie was born on July 14th, 1912, in Okemah, Oklahoma, and died October 3rd, 1967. Woody’s father (Charles Edward) was a land speculator, and a cowboy who insisted on teaching Woody American Indian and Western songs …show more content…
First, he lost his sister Clara through an accidental death involving a fire (fire becomes a theme in many of his later songs), followed by their family’s financial ruin (stemming from many poor land deals that his father was involved in). His mother was institutionalized after many of these events and eventually died of Huntington’s disease in 1930. Guthrie’s home and family suffered permanent devastation. Then 1929 at the age of 18, Guthrie left for Texas due to the busting of the Okemah’s boomtown. In Texas, he met Mary Jennings a sister to Matt Jennings, a prominent Texas musician. He married Mary Jennings in 1933 and together they gave birth to three children. His interaction with Matt Jennings (the brother of Mary) enabled him make his first attempts in a music carrier (Partington &