Kellie Dawn Pickler| American Idol |Biography

Profile
Famous as :
Country music singer
Birth Name :
Kellie Dawn Pickler
Birth Date :
June 28, 1986
Birth Place :
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Claim to fame :
Fifth season "American Idol" contestant
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Biography:

Although she never went home with "American
Idol" title, Kellie Pickler was one of the show's best
alumni. She was born Kellie Dawn Pickler on June 28, 1986 at Stanly Memorial Hospital in Albemarle to Cynthia Morton and Clyde Raymond Pickler. Her
mother was only 16 when she was pregnant with her. It was a harsh childhood for Pickler because
her father struggled with addiction for drugs and alcohol while her mother left her when she was only two.
Morton returned to take her custody for a couple of years, but Pickler admitted that it was not all
well. "I remember my mother and I were in the
kitchen and I said, 'I wish God would take me
away, I'd much rather be dead than live here with you.' She took a knife out, set it on the counter
and said, 'Here, do it then.' I was in fourth grade.
Of course I never would have acted upon it, but it's done a lot of emotional scarring," she said. The court eventually handed Pickler to her grandparents when she was 12 and Morton did
not show up for the hearing.
Pickler was raised by her grandparents throughout her life, citing ...
them as the major influence in her life. The
grandmother Faye Pickler died from lung cancer in January 2002 and she was continued raised by the
grandfather. Pickler graduated from North Stanly High School in New London, North Carolina.
Her showbiz career was kicked off with her
participation in beauty pageants. At age 17, she
won Miss Stanly County and subsequently
competed in Miss North Carolina. But she dropped out of the competition to focus her study on
paralegal while working as a waiter at a Sonic
Drive-In franchise in 2005.
"I just did them for a year," Pickler said about
entering pageants. "I think I've done four or five pageants total because I just wanted to sing. Living in a small [town] like Albemarle, there are not many opportunities that come along - or any at that - to showcase your talents. I just enrolled in
the pageants to do the singing parts."
Nineteen years old Pickler auditioned for the fifth season of "Idol" in the fall of 2005 in Greensboro,
N.C., accompanied by her grandpa. "There were like between 8,500 and 10,000 people there at the coliseum. ...We sat down and everyone around us was doing vocal warm-ups ...