LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Jackie Cochran: Florida Panhandle
built 216 days ago
"Jackie Cochran was born in Florida in 1912. Orphaned as an infant, she grew up poor with dreams of one day being wealthy enough to travel the world. As a teenager, she left her foster family and went to work for a beauty shop..." -- Western Reserve Historical Society
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Jackie hated school and did not stay long. Working and making money was her first education. At the age of eight she got a job at a local cotton mill in Columbus, Georgia. This is where her foster parents moved after the jobs in Florida dried up. The family moved as they reached the very point of starvation. Jackie earned six cents an hour. At the end of her first week of work Jackie had $4.50, which was then taken by her foster parents for the good of the family.
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Jackie married Robert Cochran, a young aircraft mechanic from the nearby naval base at Pensacola, at a young age. They were married in Blakeley, Georgia on November 13, 1920. Jackie gave birth to Robert Cochran Jr. four months later. The couple and child moved to Miami where they lived for four years. Filing for divorce, Jackie moved back to northwest Florida, settling in DeFuniak Springs, where her parents were then living. Not quite five years old, Robert Cochran Jr. died a tragic death after he set his clothes on fire while playing alone in the backyard.
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Jackie was born around 1905 to 1908, according to her autobiography. To the best of her knowledge she was born in or somewhere near Muscogee, Florida She was born Bessie Lee Pittman but as she grew older Bessie remade herself and changed her name. Born in poverty, which was common at the time, Bessie was orphaned and was raised by a foster family that was extremely poor. Jackie was born in an area she called "Sawdust Road." The area was a mill town industrialized by limber mills that cut up timber harvested from the Florida forest. Jackie remembered having no shoes until she was eight years old and wearing dresses made of cast-off flour sacks.
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There is a great deal of mystery surrounding Jackie Cochran's childhood and early life. She claims to have been an orphan... that has been disputed by members of her immediate family. By all accounts though, Jackie Cochran grew up in extreme poverty in the Florida panhandle. Her foster family traveled from sawmill to sawmill, slaves of the company store. By the age of 10, she was working 12-hour shifts for 6 cents an hour in a cotton mill while supervising 15 other children. A born survivor, Jackie jumped on an opportunity to apprentice with a beautician to escape the Southern cotton mills.
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