She transferred briefly to University of Southern California where she pledged the Upsilon chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Cole attended The Buckley School, a private school in Sherman Oaks, California, and then enrolled in the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Soon afterwards she began having a difficult relationship with her mother. ![]() Her paternal uncle Freddy Cole was a singer and pianist with numerous albums and awards.Ĭole enrolled in Northfield School for Girls, an elite New England preparatory school (since 1971 known as Northfield Mount Hermon School after merging with another school) before her father died of lung cancer in February 1965. Through her mother, Cole was a grandniece of educator Charlotte Hawkins Brown. At the age of 6, Natalie sang on her father's Christmas album The Magic of Christmas and later started performing at age 11.Ĭole grew up with an older adopted sister, Carole "Cookie" Cole (1944–2009) (her mother Maria's younger sister's daughter), adopted brother Nat "Kelly" Cole (1959–1995), and younger twin sisters Timolin and Casey (born 1961). Regarding her childhood, Cole referred to her family as "the black Kennedys" and was exposed to many great singers of jazz, soul and blues. ![]() ![]() Natalie Cole was born at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, California, to American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole and former Duke Ellington Orchestra singer Maria Hawkins Ellington, and raised in the affluent Hancock Park district of Los Angeles.
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