William Smith Bill Monroe, the youngest of eight children of James Buchanan Monroe and Melissa Ann Monroe, was born at the Monroe homeplace on Jerusalem Ridge near Rosine, Kentucky. As a boy he worked on the family farm, attended Horton grade school through the seventh grade, went fox hunting with his father, and learned music from his mother and his uncle Pen Vandiver. He lost his mother at age nine and his father at sixteen, then lived with his uncle Pen before leaving Kentucky and beginning the journey that led to the creation of bluegrass music and to his becoming one of the true legends of the American music industry. In 1935 he married Carolyn Minnie Brown, and they had two children, Melissa Kathleen Monroe, born Sept 17, 1936, and James William Monroe, born March 15, 1941. He became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in 1939, sold millions of records, won many national awards for his music, and performed at the request of four United States Presidents.