Ringo Starr Biography From Birth Through The Beatles
A First Person Ringo Starr Biography From Birth Through The Beatles
[i:6bebcd7f12]A Brief and Hopefully Accurate Summary of the Life and Times of Ringo Starr.[/i:6bebcd7f12]
I, Ringo Starr, was born on July seventh, 1940. I was named after my father. I was the only child of Richard Starkey and Elsie Gleave. The two had met while working together at a local bakery. They eventually married in 1936. My family resided at 9 Madryn Street, a six-room terrace house in a poor and rough working class section of Liverpool known as the Dingle. My father had left home when I was 3 years old. In 1944, My mother and I moved to 10 Admiral Grove, a smaller, less expensive terrace house around the corner. I called 10 Admiral Grove home until I moved to London with the Beatles. Determined to support herself and me, Elsie went to work as a barmaid, often leaving me in the care of neighbors or my paternal grandparents.
At the age of five, I started school at St. Silas Infants School, but my school career hit the first of many snags when, at age six, I developed appendicitis. My appendix ruptured resulting in peritonitis and a ten week coma. My mother was told on several occasions that I would not live, but eventually, to the doctor's surprise, I came round and slowly began to mend. After six months, recovery was within sight, but then disaster struck. I fell out of the hospital bed necessitating an additional six month hospital stay. When I was finally released, I found that I was very behind in his school work. I couldn't read or write, so a neighbor child, Marie Maguire, was recruited to help teach me. I never cared much for school, and the fact that I was so far behind didn't help. I would often play truant, a fact that no doubt influenced my dismal showing on the Review exam. Since I didn't pass the Review, I didn't even take the Eleven Plus exam and, as a result, wound up at Dinglevale Secondary Modern School at age eleven.
In 1953, with my enthusiastic blessing, Elsie married Harry Graves. That same year I developed pleurisy. Complications resulted in another hospitalization, this one lasting two years. Despite all these hardships, I, by all accounts, remained a contented easy-going individual if somewhat quiet and thoughtful. When I emerged from the hospital at fifteen, I knew...