Editing Jerry Jeff Walker (section)

==Early life==
Walker was born Ronald Clyde Crosby in [[Oneonta, New York]], on March 16, 1942.  His father, Mel, worked as a sports referee and bartender; his mother, Alma (Conrow), was a housewife.<ref name="NYT obit">{{cite news |title=Jerry Jeff Walker, Who Wrote and Sang 'Mr. Bojangles,' Dies at 78 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/arts/music/jerry-jeff-walker-dead.html |first=Bill |last=Friskics-Warren |date=October 24, 2020 |access-date=October 26, 2020 |newspaper=The New York Times |archive-date=October 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20201025123250/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/arts/music/jerry-jeff-walker-dead.html |url-status=live }}</ref> His maternal grandparents played for square dances in the Oneonta area<ref name="NYT obit"/> – his grandmother, Jessie Conrow, playing piano, while his grandfather played fiddle. During the late 1950s, Crosby was a member of a local Oneonta teen band called The Tones.<ref>{{cite news |title=Texas music icon Jerry Jeff Walker dies |url=https://preview.houstonchronicle.com/music/texas-music-icon-jerry-jeff-walker-dies-15672095 |first=Andrew |last=Dansby |date=October 24, 2020 |access-date=October 26, 2020 |newspaper=Houston Chronicle |archive-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026102651/https://preview.houstonchronicle.com/music/texas-music-icon-jerry-jeff-walker-dies-15672095 |url-status=live }}</ref>

After high school, Crosby joined the National Guard, but his thirst for adventure led him to go [[AWOL]] and he was eventually discharged.<ref name="NYT obit"/><ref name="WP obit">{{cite news |title=Jerry Jeff Walker, Texas troubadour who wrote 'Mr. Bojangles,' dies at 78 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/jerry-jeff-walker-texas-troubadour-who-wrote-mr-bojangles-dies-at-78/2020/10/24/aeef3e92-1606-11eb-ba42-ec6a580836ed_story.html |first=Matt |last=Schudel |date=October 24, 2020 |access-date=October 26, 2020 |newspaper=The Washington Post |archive-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026143201/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/jerry-jeff-walker-texas-troubadour-who-wrote-mr-bojangles-dies-at-78/2020/10/24/aeef3e92-1606-11eb-ba42-ec6a580836ed_story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>  He went on to roam the country [[busking]] for a living in [[New Orleans]] and throughout Texas, Florida, and New York, often accompanied by [[H. R. Stoneback]] (a friendship referenced in 1970's "Stoney").<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=22CnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA152 |title=I'd Fight the World: A Political History of Old-Time, Hillbilly, and Country Music |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=September 9, 2019 |last=La Chapelle |first=Peter |page=152 |isbn=9780226923000 |access-date=November 1, 2020 |archive-date=February 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213084618/https://books.google.com/books?id=22CnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA152 |url-status=live }}</ref> He first played under the stage name of Jerry Ferris, then Jeff Walker, before amalgamating them into Jerry Jeff Walker and legally [[Name change|changing his name]] to that in the late 1960s.<ref name="WP obit"/>