Well-known for her trademark legs, throaty voice, and boundless stage energy, Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock, 1939) was one of the sexiest and most popular international performers of the 20th century. She first began singing with the Kings of Rhythm, and then formed the Ike and Tina Turner Revue with the leader of that group. Leaving her abusive partner in 1976, she went on to star in her own right into the mid 1980s.

"Tina" was an invention of Ike Turner. The singer was born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939 in rural Tennessee. Her father, Floyd Bullock, was a farm overseer and church deacon who fought perpetually with his "black Indian" wife Zelma. Turner and her older sister, Alline, spent most of their childhood shuttling between the homes of grandparents, father, mother, and a cousin.

Yearned to Sing

For a time during World War II, when Turner's parents were still...