Editing Roberta Flack (section)

==Early life and education==
Flack was born on February 10, 1937,<ref name="NYT Russonello"/>{{efn|''Motown Encyclopedia'' gives her birth year as 1939, but says: "(although some sources state the year of birth to be 1937)".<ref name="Motown Encyclopedia">{{cite book |last1=Betts |first1=Graham |title=Motown Encyclopedia |date=2014 |publisher=AC Publishing |isbn=978-1-311-44154-6 |chapter=Roberta Flack & Quincy Jones |access-date=October 16, 2020 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RG_LAwAAQBAJ&q=%22roberta%20flack%22%20birth%20date&pg=PT161 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503175855/https://books.google.com/books?id=RG_LAwAAQBAJ&q=%22roberta%20flack%22%20birth%20date&pg=PT161 |archive-date=May 3, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>}} in [[Black Mountain, North Carolina]], to parents Laron Flack, a jazz pianist and [[U.S. Veterans Administration]] draftsman,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wansley |first=Joyce |date=October 9, 1978 |title=After Three Years on Tilt, Roberta Flack Is Finally Lighting Up the Charts Again |url=https://people.com/archive/after-three-years-on-tilt-roberta-flack-is-finally-lighting-up-the-charts-again-vol-10-no-15/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129013033/https://people.com/archive/after-three-years-on-tilt-roberta-flack-is-finally-lighting-up-the-charts-again-vol-10-no-15/ |archive-date=November 29, 2018 |access-date=November 28, 2018 |work=People |language=en}}</ref> and Irene (née Council) Flack<ref name="NYT Russonello"/><ref name="Soulwaking.co.uk">{{cite web|url=http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Roberta%20Flack.html|title=Roberta Flack page|publisher=Soulwalking.co.uk|access-date=November 11, 2012|archive-date=October 9, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009150540/http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Roberta%20Flack.html|url-status=live}}</ref> a church organist.<ref name="Russonello NYT2">{{Cite news |last=Russonello |first=Giovanni |date=February 24, 2025 |title=Roberta Flack, Virtuoso Singer-Pianist Behind 'Killing Me Softly,' Dies at 88 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/arts/music/roberta-flack-dead.html |access-date=February 25, 2025 |newspaper=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> According to [[DNA analysis]], Flack was of Cameroonian descent.<ref>{{cite web |date=November 27, 2008 |title=Growing Interest in DNA-Based Genetic Testing Among African American with Historic Election of President Elect Barack Obama |url=http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/11/prweb1673564.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150801011403/http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/11/prweb1673564.htm |archive-date=August 1, 2015 |access-date=November 11, 2012 |publisher=Prweb.com}}</ref> Her family moved to [[Richmond, Virginia]],<ref name="Russonello NYT2" /> before settling in [[Arlington County, Virginia|Arlington]], Virginia, when she was five years old.

Her first musical experiences were in church.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/roberta-flack-obituary-singer-who-fused-soul-jazz-and-folk-q6gsbmfmt |website=thetimes.com |title=The Times Register: Obituary Roberta Flack |date=25 February 2025 |access-date=28 February 2025}}</ref> She grew up in a large musical family and often provided piano accompaniment for the choir of [[Lomax African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church]] singing hymns and spirituals. She occasionally sang at the Macedonia [[Baptist Church]] in Arlington.<ref> Eliza Tebo, [https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/roberta-flack-arlington/ Roberta Flack’s Road to the Grammys Began in Arlington], arlingtonmagazine.com, February 16, 2023 </ref><ref name="Weisbard" /> Her father acquired a battered old piano for her, which she learned to play sitting on her mother's lap.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/roberta-flack-obituary-singer-who-fused-soul-jazz-and-folk-q6gsbmfmt |website=thetimes.com |title=The Times Register: Obituary Roberta Flack |date=25 February 2025 |access-date=28 February 2025}}</ref> and Flack took formal piano lessons when she was nine.<ref name="Soulwaking.co.uk"/>  She gravitated towards classical music and during her early teens excelled at classical piano,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/roberta-flack-obituary-singer-who-fused-soul-jazz-and-folk-q6gsbmfmt |website=thetimes.com |title=The Times Register: Obituary Roberta Flack |date=25 February 2025 |access-date=28 February 2025}}</ref> finishing second in a statewide competition for Black students aged 13<ref name="Russonello NYT2" /> playing a [[Domenico Scarlatti|Scarlatti]] sonata.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/roberta-flack-arlington/|title=Roberta Flack's Road to the Grammys Began in Arlington|first=Eliza|last=Tebo|magazine=Arlington Magazine|date=February 16, 2023|access-date=March 9, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/roberta-flack-obituary-singer-who-fused-soul-jazz-and-folk-q6gsbmfmt |website=thetimes.com |title=The Times Register: Obituary Roberta Flack |date=25 February 2025 |access-date=28 February 2025}}</ref> In 1952 at the age of 15 she won a full music scholarship to [[Howard University]] in Washington DC,<ref name="bio">{{cite web|url=http://www.robertaflack.com/rfbio.html|title=Roberta Flack Biography|website=robertaflack.com|publisher=Roberta Flack|access-date=November 11, 2012|archive-date=January 22, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100122192647/http://www.robertaflack.com/rfbio.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and was one of the youngest students ever to enroll there.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/roberta-flack-obituary-singer-who-fused-soul-jazz-and-folk-q6gsbmfmt |website=thetimes.com |title=The Times Register: Obituary Roberta Flack |date=25 February 2025 |access-date=28 February 2025}}</ref> She eventually changed her major from piano to voice and became assistant conductor of the university choir. Her direction of a production of [[Giuseppe Verdi]]'s opera ''[[Aida]]'' received a standing ovation from the Howard University faculty.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/roberta-flack-biography-and-career-timeline/25437/|title=Roberta Flack biography and career timeline|date=January 17, 2023|website=Pbs.org|access-date=February 24, 2025}}</ref> At Howard she met her future collaborator, Donny Hathaway.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/roberta-flack-obituary-singer-who-fused-soul-jazz-and-folk-q6gsbmfmt |website=thetimes.com |title=The Times Register: Obituary Roberta Flack |date=25 February 2025 |access-date=28 February 2025}}</ref>

Flack became a [[student teacher]] at a school near [[Chevy Chase, Maryland]]. She graduated from Howard University at 19 and began [[graduate studies]] in music there, but after the sudden death of her father she had to find work to support herself. She took a job teaching music and English at a small, segregated high school in [[Farmville, North Carolina]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Roberta Flack, Best-Of Edition|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5355321|work=[[News & Notes]]|publisher=NPR|interviewer=[[Ed Gordon (journalist)|Ed Gordon]]|date=April 21, 2006|access-date=June 9, 2017|archive-date=June 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620223402/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5355321|url-status=live}}</ref> for which she was paid $2,800 a year.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/03/29/archives/robertas-a-capital-find.html|title=Roberta's a Capital Find|newspaper=The New York Times|first=Jack|last=Rosenthal|author-link=Jack Rosenthal|date=March 29, 1970|access-date=February 25, 2025}}</ref>