Malcolm X
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Babe Ruth learned to play baseball while growing up in orphanages.
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The image of the typical or "normal" American family -- with a father, mother, 2.5 kids, and a dog -- has become less and less familiar over time. These days, families are "blended" and "progressive" and more than a little creative in terms of structure. Below are a few well-known celebrities that were ahead of the curve. Each famous figure listed below was orphaned, fostered, or adopted at a young age and clearly didn't let that set them back.


George Herman Ruth, Jr., born in 1895 in Maryland, lost six of his seven siblings in childhood due to disease and poverty. Babe's tavern-owning parents placed him and his sister in orphanages, sending Babe to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys. It was there that Babe met Brother Matthias, who taught him how to play baseball. The rest is history -- Babe Ruth is one of the greatest and most beloved players to ever set foot on a baseball field.
In 1928, one of America's most influential blues musicians, Ellas Bates -- better known as Bo Diddley -- was born to a desperately poor couple in rural Mississippi. At a young age, he was adopted, along with three cousins, by his mother's cousin, who moved the family to Chicago in the mid-1930s. Diddley, nicknamed "The Originator," would go on to record nearly 40 records and be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Wendy's founder Dave Thomas was given up for adoption at birth.
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Dave Thomas, the founder of fast-food restaurant giant Wendy's, was given up for adoption at birth. Sadly, his adoptive mother died when he was five. Thomas left high school in the tenth grade to work full-time at a restaurant. After a stint in the army, Thomas moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he opened his first Wendy's restaurant in 1969. He would later found the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption to promote adoption law simplification and reduce adoption costs in the United States.

Best known as the lead singer of Blondie, the '80s pop sensation who produced hits such as "Call Me" and "Heart of Glass," Deborah Harry was given up at three months and adopted by a couple from New Jersey. Harry led the typical rock-star lifestyle, but she has lived to tell the tale. Blondie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, and Harry continues to tour and act.
On the next page, you will find the continuation of our list of celebrities who were adopted with a civil rights activist and an Olympic gold medalist.
Malcom X was put into an orphanage after his father died and his mother was admitted to a mental hospital.
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The childhood of the man who would become "black power" leader Malcolm X was not a happy one. His father, Earl Little, was a Christian minister who was killed in 1931 when Malcolm was a small boy. Following his father's death, his mother had a nervous breakdown and was committed to a mental hospital. Malcolm and his siblings were put into an orphanage and later fostered by various families. Malcolm X would later convert to the Nation of Islam and emerge as one of the most influentialcivil rights activists of the modern era.