Ella Fitzgerald
She was known as “the first lady of song,” a Grammy award-winning singer and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. Born on April 25, 1918 in Newport News, VA, Fitzgerald lived on the streets of Harlem in New York City for a year while she was young, before winning an amateur singing contest at The Apollo Theater. After a great career as a singer, Ella died June 15, 1996, in Beverly Hills, CA.
Cary Grant
Grant, born in Horfield, Bristol, England in 1904, was an Oscar-award-winning actor. During World War I, on the streets of South Hampton, England, one summer in his youth he volunteered as a messenger and a gofer on the military docks. He would often sleep in alleys when he didn’t make enough money during the day to rent a simple cot in a flophouse. The actor died at the age of 82 on Nov. 29, 1986.
Kelly Clarkson
The winner of the 1st season of American Idol in 2002, Kelly Clarkson is now a Grammy award winning singer. In March, 2002, after a fire in her apartment building, she was forced to live in her car and a shelter in Hollywood, Calif. With nowhere to turn, Clarkson lived in a homeless shelter for several days.
