She spent her early adult life in Saginaw, Michigan, but from 1975 until her death in 2006, lived in Los Angeles, California.
[1] Her childhood years were marked by hardship, and she was moved around among relatives before eventually reaching Saginaw, Michigan, where she married the much older Calvin Judkin, father of her first two children.
The blindness of her third child, Stevland, is attributed to having been born weeks prematurely and then receiving too much oxygen in an incubator.
[1] It was in Detroit that the musical talents of Stevland – who by the age of 10 "was playing and singing gospel tunes in church, and then joining adults singing rhythm and blues on the street corners" – came to the notice of Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, who dubbed him "Little Stevie Wonder".
There were remarks by Motown founder Berry Gordy and songs by gospel singer Yolanda Adams and others.