Smith, Patti

Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is a rock musician, poet and artist, the oldest of four siblings born in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up in small-town Pitman, a working class community near Philadelphia. Her mother was a jazz singer and waitress and her father, a former tap dancer, worked at the Honeywell plant. Smith was brought up a Jehova’s Witness. An unplanned pregnancy at the age of sixteen put a stop to further education, her son was adopted and Patti went to work in a factory.