Editing Roger Miller (section)

== Early life ==
Roger Miller was born in [[Fort Worth, Texas]], the third son of Jean and Laudene (Holt) Miller. Jean Miller died from spinal meningitis when Miller was a year old. Unable to support the family during the [[Great Depression]],<ref name="bio">{{cite web |url=http://www.rogermiller.com/bio1.html |title=Biography |publisher=rogermiller.com |access-date=July 11, 2010 }}</ref> Laudene sent her three sons to live with three of Jean's brothers. Thus, Miller grew up on a farm outside [[Erick, Oklahoma]], with Elmer and Armelia Miller.<ref name="enc">{{citation |last1=Landon |first1=Grelun |first2=Irwin |first3=Lyndon |last2=Stambler |last3=Stambler |title=Roger Miller |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Country Music |publisher=Macmillan|pages=311–314|year=2000}}</ref>

As a boy, Miller did farm work, such as picking [[cotton]] and plowing. He later said he was "dirt poor" and that as late as 1951, the family did not own a telephone.<ref name="high">{{cite web |url=http://www.rogermiller.com/SchoolPaper.html |title=High School Papers |publisher=rogermiller.com |access-date=July 11, 2010 }}</ref> He received his primary education at a one-room schoolhouse. Miller was an introverted child who often daydreamed or composed songs. One of his earliest compositions went: "There's a picture on the wall. It's the dearest of them all, Mother."<ref name="bio" />

Miller was a member of the [[National FFA Organization|FFA]] in high school.<ref name="high" /> He listened to the ''[[Grand Ole Opry]]'' and [[Light Crust Doughboys]] on a Fort Worth station with his cousin's husband, [[Sheb Wooley]]. Wooley taught Miller his first guitar chords and bought him a fiddle. Wooley, [[Hank Williams]], and [[Bob Wills]] were the influences that led to Miller's desire to be a singer-songwriter. He began to run away and perform in Oklahoma and Texas. At 17, he stole a [[guitar]] out of desperation to write songs, but he turned himself in the next day. He chose to enlist in the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] to avoid [[jail]]. He later quipped, "My education was [[Korean War|Korea, Clash of '52]]." Near the end of his military service, while stationed in Atlanta, Georgia, Miller played fiddle in the "Circle A Wranglers", a military musical group started by [[Faron Young]].<ref name="bio" /> While Miller was stationed in [[South Carolina]], an army sergeant whose brother was [[Kenneth C. "Jethro" Burns]], from the musical duo [[Homer and Jethro]], persuaded him to head to Nashville after his discharge.<ref name="enc" />