Woody Guthrie lost his
childhood home in a
fire.
His
sister died
after a fire as well, albeit much later, and a
rumor circulated that his mother had
started the fire herself. (
She got Huntington's disease. So did he.)
After he
grew up and became a folksinger, he was home
most of the day taking care of his daughter
Cathy while his wife Marjorie taught
dancing lessons.
Once he was
on the road, doing
important folksinger business, and
Marjorie crossed the street to buy groceries. She was
not gone more than five minutes, in which time an
electrical fire began in the
apartment, and
Cathy, 4, was killed.
Woody Guthrie also got
Huntington's Disease, which initially presented itselfas an
extreme mid-life crisis. He
ran off to Florida with a 19-year-old girl and camped in the
Everglades.
A couple of
near-misses with campfires.