August Wilson (April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was born Frederick August Kittel Jr. in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the fourth of six children. His father, Frederick August Kittel Sr., was a German immigrant, who was a baker/pastry cook. His mother, Daisy Wilson, was an African-American cleaning woman from North Carolina. Wilson’s anecdotal history reports that his maternal grandmother walked from North Carolina to Pennsylvania in search of a better life. Wilson’s mother raised the children alone until he was five in a two-room apartment above a grocery store at 1727 Bedford Avenue; his father was mostly absent from his childhood.