Faith Hill and Adoption

Biography

Hill (full name: Audrey Faith Perry Hill) was adopted when a few days old by Ted and Edna Perry, who had two older born-two sons and wanted a daughter, and raised in Star, Mississippi. Her birth parents were unmarried, although they married later and had a son.

She always has known she was adopted.

She began singing in public when she was seven, but did not debut professionally until 1993, although she had her first band when she was 16 or 17. She went to Nashville when she was 19 and worked at various jobs until her big break with Take Me As I Am in 1993. Her second album was It Matters to Me in 1995 and she participated in The Best of Country Sings The Best of Disney and For Our Children Too, both in 1996. Faith was released in 1999.

She has won a number of country music awards, including singing at the closing ceremonies of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and singing the National Anthem at the 2000 Super Bowl, as well as four 1999 Academy of Country Music awards. She is married to singer Tim McGraw and has two children (her first marriage was to songwriter Dan Hill).

Although she initially had no interest in tracing her birth family, she changed her mind and has a good relationship with her birth mother and birth brother; her birth father had already died in an accident.

Her adoptive father's illiteracy has inspired her to fund adult literacy projects.

References

"Faith's Bio." [Includes portraits]. Available at: [1] "Biography & Facts" [Includes portraits]. Available at: [2] Buchalter, Gail. "You Have to Please Yourself," Parade Magazine, 30 January 2000, p. 8-9