Born in St. Louis, Missouri, June 3, 1906; died April 12, 1975, Paris, France. Born Freda Josephine McDonald, the woman who would grow up to become a lasting icon is perhaps still best known to younger generations through the sincere, touching HBO film version of her life, The Josephine Baker Story , starring Lynn Whitfield. Never a major star in America, Baker was a megastar throughout much of Europe and, of course, nowhere more so than in her adopted homeland, France. Her impoverished childhood in St. Louis was marked by domestic instability and a constant struggle against poverty and racism, epitomized by the deadly St. Louis race riots of 1917. She was of mixed Native American and African American background, the descendant of Apalachee Indians and black slaves from South Carolina. Her mother was Carrie McDonald and her father was vaudeville drummer Eddie Carson (Arthur Martin was her stepfather). Her siblings were Richard, Margaret and Willie Mae. Josephine's parents had a song…