Lula Mae Hardaway, mother of singer Stevie Wonder

LOS ANGELES – Lula Mae Hardaway, the mother of Stevie Wonder, died here on May 31.

She was 76 and had lived in Los Angeles since 1975. Hardaway is credited as a co-writer on several Stevie Wonder songs, including the hits ‘I Was Made to Love Her’ and ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours’.She was born January 11 1930, to a sharecropper, Noble Hardaway, in Eufaula, Alabama.Her life was marked by poverty and abuse, according to interviews she gave for a 2002 biography, ‘Blind Faith: The Miraculous Journey of Lula Hardaway, Stevie Wonder’s Mother’.”She had a very, very rough upbringing,” said Stacy Brown, a co-writer of the book.”She went from house to house as a child, from relative to relative.Her parents didn’t want her.”At 15, she and Mr Hardaway moved to Indiana, where she went to work in a sewing factory.She married a much older man, Calvin Judkins, the father of her children.According to the book, he drank, beat her and eventually forced her into prostitution to support the family.She eventually fled to Detroit, divorced and found work.It was in Detroit that her blind 10-year-old son, Stevie, began singing on street corners.His talent attracted the attention of Berry Gordy Jr, the founder of Motown Records, who signed him to a record contract and nicknamed him Little Stevie Wonder.Ms Hardaway negotiated her son’s first contract, Ms Brown said.- Nampa-APHardaway is credited as a co-writer on several Stevie Wonder songs, including the hits ‘I Was Made to Love Her’ and ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours’.She was born January 11 1930, to a sharecropper, Noble Hardaway, in Eufaula, Alabama.Her life was marked by poverty and abuse, according to interviews she gave for a 2002 biography, ‘Blind Faith: The Miraculous Journey of Lula Hardaway, Stevie Wonder’s Mother’.”She had a very, very rough upbringing,” said Stacy Brown, a co-writer of the book.”She went from house to house as a child, from relative to relative.Her parents didn’t want her.”At 15, she and Mr Hardaway moved to Indiana, where she went to work in a sewing factory.She married a much older man, Calvin Judkins, the father of her children.According to the book, he drank, beat her and eventually forced her into prostitution to support the family.She eventually fled to Detroit, divorced and found work.It was in Detroit that her blind 10-year-old son, Stevie, began singing on street corners.His talent attracted the attention of Berry Gordy Jr, the founder of Motown Records, who signed him to a record contract and nicknamed him Little Stevie Wonder.Ms Hardaway negotiated her son’s first contract, Ms Brown said.- Nampa-AP