Page "Bix Beiderbecke" Paragraph 7

Beiderbecke's father, the son of German immigrants, was a well-to-do coal and lumber merchant, named after the Iron Chancellor of his native Germany.

Beiderbecke's mother was the daughter of a Mississippi riverboat captain.

She played the organ at Davenport's First Presbyterian Church, and encouraged young Bix's interest in the piano.

Bix Beiderbecke was the youngest of three children.

His brother, Burnie, was born in 1895, and his sister, Mary Louise, in 1898.

Bix began playing piano at age two or three.

His sister recalls that he stood on the floor and played it with his hands over his head.

Five years later, he was the subject of an admiring article in the Davenport Daily Democrat that proclaimed: " Seven-year-old boy musical wonder!

Little Bickie Beiderbecke plays any selection he hears.