Bobbie Gentry (b. Roberta Lee Streeter, July 27 1944, Chickasaw County, Mississippi) is an American singer-songwriter.
She shot to international fame in the summer of 1967 with "Ode to Billie Joe". The song was listed as the most popular single of the year in many U.S. record surveys [citation needed].
Gentry spent her childhood living with her father in Greenwood, Mississippi, where she attended elementary school and began teaching herself to play the guitar, bass, and the banjo. In her early teens, she moved to Palm Springs, California, to live with her mother, Ruby Bullington Streeter, graduating from Palm Valley School in 1960. Gentry was of partial Portuguese ancestry. At about this time, she chose the stage name "Bobbie Gentry" and began performing at local country clubs, encouraged by no less a Palm Springs celebrity than Bob Hope.
After a short career as a Las Vegas showgirl, Gentry moved to Los Angeles, attended UCLA (where she was a philosophy major) and worked...
Created by dipity
on Jan 24, 2008
Last updated: 11/18/09 at 02:54 AM