![]() ![]() Later on Baker correctly concluded that their criticism could have masked any number of reasons that might through no fault of their own led to the group's dismissal, but at the time she was shattered by the turn of events. Label executives offered the assessment that Baker lacked star quality. They had a minor hit with "I Just Want to Be Your Girl" in 1980, but disbanded after being dropped from the label, which was itself in dire financial straits. To front a funk ensemble called Chapter 8, whose bass player had heard her perform in an East Side nightclub.Ĭhapter 8 toured widely and landed a contract with Los Angeles-based Ariola Records. Baker attended a community college briefly, but a strong drive toward musical performance asserted itself, and she dropped out of school She began to sing secular music with her friends as well, and was performing in Detroit clubs by the time she was 16. ![]() Not good, period." Baker's foster family provided her with a stable environment that emphasized hard work and religion she joined a church choir and identified with the deep voice of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. And until Walter, that is how I felt about me-that I was not good enough. Something terrible that made her unlovable. Much later, in an interview with Essence, Baker recalled how she tried to cope with this discovery: "That child believed her mother abandoned her," she said (referring to herself), "because there was something bad about her. This older adoptive sister, Lois Landry, raised Anita. When Anita was 13, her foster mother died, and an older sister in her adoptive family told her the truth about her past. Her birth mother, who was only 16 when Anita was born, abandoned her, leaving her in the care of a woman who has been variously described as a friend and as a relative this woman, Mary Lewis, became her foster mother. She was born in 1957 or 1958 in Toledo, Ohio, perhaps on January 26 or December 20, and grew up in Detroit's inner city. The facts of her early life are far from clear most have been supplied by Baker herself in interviews that sometimes contradict one another. ![]()
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