Wonder was born on May 13, 1950, in Saginaw, Michigan, as Stevland Hardaway Judkins, the third of five children born to Lula Mae Hardaway and the second of Hardaway’s two children with Calvin Judkins.
He was born six weeks premature, which, combined with the oxygen-rich environment in the hospital incubator, caused retinopathy of prematurity, a condition in which the growth of the eyes is halted and the retinas detach, causing him to go blind.
Wonder’s mother divorced his father when he was four years old and moved with her three children to Detroit, Michigan, where Wonder sang in a choir at the Whitestone Baptist Church as a child. She later rekindled her relationship with her first child’s father (whose surname was also Hardaway by coincidence) and changed her name back to Lula Hardaway, having two more children.
When Stevie was signed by Motown in 1961, his surname was legally changed to Morris, which was an old family name, according to Lula Mae Hardaway’s authorized biography. Berry Gordy was the man behind “Little Stevie Wonder’s” stage name.
Where is Steven Stayner’s wife today?
Jody Edmondson has remarried and now lives a private life away from the spotlight in Sheridan, Oregon.
