Editing Ringo Starr (section)

==Early Life and Background==

Starr was born in the Dingle, a tough working-class neighborhood in Liverpool, England, the only child of Richard Starkey Sr. and Elsie Gleave. His parents divorced when he was three, and he was raised primarily by his mother, who later remarried. His childhood was marked by serious and recurring illness: at age six he suffered a burst appendix that led to peritonitis and a prolonged hospital stay, and at thirteen he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, spending two years in a sanitarium. These extended hospitalizations severely disrupted his formal education, leaving him with little schooling, but also introduced him to music — hospital staff encouraged patients to play percussion instruments as a form of recreational therapy, an experience that planted the seed of his lifelong vocation.

He left school at fifteen and worked a series of manual jobs before becoming increasingly devoted to drumming, immersing himself in the Liverpool skiffle and rock and roll scene of the late 1950s. He joined '''Rory Storm and the Hurricanes''' in 1959, one of the most popular live acts on Merseyside at the time, adopting the stage name '''Ringo Starr''' — ''Ringo'' for the rings he habitually wore, ''Starr'' to lend his drum solos a marquee-worthy billing as '''Starr Time'''. It was during this period, playing residencies in Hamburg alongside other Liverpool groups, that he first became acquainted with [[John Lennon]], [[Paul McCartney]], and [[George Harrison]].