Born Ray Charles Robinson in 1930 in Albany, Georgia, he grew up in extreme poverty in Greenville, Florida. His childhood was marked by two major tragedies: witnessing the accidental drowning of his younger brother and losing his sight entirely to glaucoma by age seven. Despite being blind, he studied music at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, where he learned to write music in Braille and play multiple instruments, including the piano, clarinet, and saxophone. Musical Innovation and "The Genius"
