Editing Fred Phelps (section)

===Early Life (1929-1947)===
Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. was born on November 13, 1929 in Meridian, Mississippi to Fred Wade Phelps, a railroad police officer, and Catherine Idalette Johnson, a homemaker. He had a younger sister named Martha-Jean, who had been estranged from for many years. When Phelps was five, his mother died of throat cancer, and he and sister were raised by his great-aunt, Irene Jordan. Fred Wade Phelps would soon re-marry, however.

Phelps was described as having a normal childhood, excelling at school and sports, being an Eagle Scout, and even graduating from high school at age sixteen. When Phelps was seventeen, he was ordained a minster after having a religious experience. He soon left home to preach and became estranged from his family.