Woody Guthrie

His first marriage was to Mary Jennings with whom he had three children. The marriage ended in a divorce in 1943.

He later married Marjorie and had four children with her. He was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease and his wife divorced him fearing that he would be a threat to their children.

He wed again to Anneke Van Kirk. They had one daughter. Anneke could not bear the strain of caring for him as his disease progressed and divorced him.

He was born to Nora Belle and Charles Guthrie in Oklahoma. His father was a businessman who was active in politics too.

He experienced several fire accidents as a child. It was, however, never determined if the fires were accidental or set by his mother who was suffering from Huntington’s disease.

His mother was sent to Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane because of her neurological disorder when Woody was 14.

His family once prosperous fell on bad times and the teenager had to work odd jobs to make a living.

He was naturally inclined towards music and would play songs around town for a sandwich.

During the late 1930s, he became a radio performer. He became quite popular for his folk music along with his radio partner Lefty Lou. During this time he also began writing and performing protest songs.

He wrote a column titled ‘Woody Sez’ for the Communist newspaper, ‘The Daily Worker’ from May 1939 to January 1940.

He moved to New York and wrote the song ‘This Land Is Your Land’ in February 1940. The song became very famous and is counted among America’s best-loved folk songs.

His first commercial album ‘Dust Bowl Ballads’ was released in 1940. The lyrics of the songs had elements of social activism and dealt with the hardships faced by migrant workers in California.

He was hired by the Department of Interior in 1941 to write songs about the Columbia River and the construction of dams for the soundtrack of a documentary about the same. He wrote 26 songs for this project which included three of his highly popular songs ‘Roll on Columbia’, ‘Pastures of Plenty’ and ‘Grand Coulee Dam’.

The song ‘This Land Is Your land’ written by him in response to the patriotic song ‘God Bless America’ became one of the U.S.’s most popular folk songs. He believed that the lyrics of ‘God Bless America’ were too unrealistic and complacent and therefore felt the need to write a response to it. The song was added to the National Recording Registry in 2002.