Country singer/songwriter Bobbie Gentry was born Roberta Lee Streeter on July 27, 1944 in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. Gentry grew up in poverty on her grandparents' farm after her parents divorced when she was a little girl. She learned to play piano by watching the church pianist. Her grandmother traded a milk cow for a piano so Bobbie could practice regularly. She wrote her first song "My Dog Sergeant is a Good Dog" on the piano; she later used this song as a humorous part of her nightclub act. At age six, Gentry went to live with her father in Greenwood, Mississippi, where she attended elementary school. Bobbie next moved to Palm Springs, California to live with her mother. It was during this time she taught herself how to play the banjo, guitar, bass and vibes. She began performing at a country club while still in high school and graduated from Palm Valley School in 1960. At age 14, Gentry took her stage name from the 1952 movie _Ruby Gentry . In the late 70s, Bobbie Gentry quit the music business and went on to run her own TV production company in Los Angeles.
Bobbie Gentrys song, "Ode to Billy Joe" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
Hit #113 on the Billboard Singles Charts in 1969 with "Touch Em with Love" (Capitol 2501)
In a 2003 CMT poll, Bobbie Gentrys song "Fancy" was ranked #27 as one of the 100 Greatest Songs of Country Music. Inexplicably, "Ode to Billy Joe" was not on the list.
In Los Angeles, she worked briefly as a department store clothing model.
She took her professional name from the movie Ruby Gentry (1952) .
In December 2008, Bobbie Gentry was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame.
[on "Ode to Billie Joe"] The song is sort of a study in unconscious,cruelty. But everybody seems more concerned with what was thrown off,the bridge than they are with the thoughtlessness of people expressed,in the song. .
