Early Life
His official records note that Yoakum was born in Missouri, but he told a story of being born in Arizona, in 1888, as a Navajo Indian on the Window Rock Navajo reservation. Taking pride in his invented native heritage, Yoakum would pronounce "Navajo" as "Na-va-JOE" (as in "Joseph"). His father was a Cherokee Indian, and his mother was a former slave of mixed Cherokee, African-American, and French-American descent. He spent his early childhood on a Missouri farm.
Yoakum left home when he was 9 years old, to join the Great Wallace Circus. As a billposter, he also traveled across the U.S. with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and the Ringling Brothers, among the five different circuses. He later traveled to Europe, as a stowaway.
In 1908, he returned to Missouri and started a family with girlfriend Myrtle Julian, with his first son in 1909 and then married her in 1910. In 1918, Yoakum was drafted into army service. He worked in the 805th Pioneer Infantry, to repair roads and railroads.
After the war, he traveled around the United States working odd jobs, but he never returned to his family. He later remarried and moved to Chicago. In 1946, Yoakum was committed to a psychiatric hospital there. He soon left and by the early 1950s, he was drawing on a regular basis.
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