One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky-and that roll of two-dollar bills she won has never since left her side. Jodie thrived in the warmth of her extended family, and then-through a combination of hard work and serendipity-she started a singing career, which catapulted her from St. Louis to New York City, from the English countryside to the tropical beaches of St. Thomas, from...