Octavia E. Butler

Author Octavia Estelle Butler was born in the town of Pasadena, California on the date June 22, 1947; she was the only child of a housemaid (Octavia Margaret Guy) and shoeshine man (Laurice James Butler). She was raised by her mother and her mother’s mother (in what she would call a strict Baptist environment) due to the fact that her father died when she was only seven years old. While growing up during segregation, she got to see that her mother was not treated very well by her white employers; she would have to enter through the back doors of the homes that she would clean. This was even though the integrated town of Pasadena allowed her to see diversity firsthand.