Guthrie's career was cut short by the illness Huntington's disease. By the late 1940s, Guthrie's health was getting poor, and his behavior was getting very erratic. He had gotten various diagnoses (including alcoholism and schizophrenia), but in 1952, it was determined that he was dying from Huntington's disease, He inherited it from his mother. Worrying that he was a danger to their children, his wife, Marjorie, said he needed to go back to California without her. They finally divorced. Over a long period of time, the illness left him in a wheelchair, then finally unable to get out of bed, or even hold a guitar. 