Early and Personal Life
Earnhardt was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, on April 29, 1951, to Martha Coleman and Ralph Lee Earnhardt, who was then one of the best short-track drivers in North Carolina. Ralph won his one and only NASCAR Sportsman Championship in 1956 at Greenville Pickens Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina. Although Ralph did not want his son to follow in his footsteps, Earnhardt would not be persuaded to give up his dream of racing, dropping out of school to race. Ralph was a hard teacher for Earnhardt, and after Ralph died of a heart attack at his home in 1973, it took many years before Earnhardt felt as though he had finally "proven" himself to his father. Earnhardt had four siblings, Danny, Randy, Cathy, and Kaye.
At age 17, Earnhardt married his first wife, Latane Brown, in 1968. Brown gave birth to Earnhardt's first son, Kerry Earnhardt, in 1969. They were subsequently divorced in 1970. In 1971, Earnhardt married his second wife, Brenda Gee - the daughter of NASCAR car builder Robert Gee. With Gee, he had two more children: a daughter, Kelley King, in 1972, and a son, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., in 1974. Not long after Dale Jr. was born, Dale Sr. and Brenda divorced. Dale then married his last wife, Teresa Houston (niece of NASCAR driver Tommy Houston) in 1982, who gave birth to their daughter, Taylor Nicole in 1988.
Read more about this topic: Dale Earnhardt
Famous quotes containing the words early, personal and/or life:
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“It is ... pathetic to observe the complete lack of imagination on the part of certain employers and men and women of the upper-income levels, equally devoid of experience, equally glib with their criticism ... directed against workers, labor leaders, and other villains and personal devils who are the objects of their dart-throwing. Who doesn’t know the wealthy woman who fulminates against the “idle” workers who just won’t get out and hunt jobs?”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“On such a night, when Air has loosed
Its guardian grasp on blood and brain,
Old terrors then of god or ghost
Creep from their caves to life again;”
—Robert Bridges (1844–1930)