![]() Wells deflected any aspersions that might have been cast on her own character because of what she sang by dressing conservatively, typically performing in high-necked gingham dresses with puffed sleeves. “There was no emotional excess, no self-pity - it was just a lot of pain she was singing about in being ‘Mommy For a Day.’ ” “She was emotional, even tearful at times, but it was restrained,” Rumble said. 1 hit she recorded with Red Foley, “One by One,” in which the singers traded lines about how “one by one we broke each vow we made.” After the success of “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” she continued singing about the most disastrous effects of romantic liaisons and divorce - topics that still touched nerves and were considered taboo in many quarters - in subsequent hits such as “Paying for That Back Street Affair,” “Your Wild Life’s Gonna Get You Down,” “Mommy For a Day” and a No. Recordings Wells made in 1949 and ’50 gained little traction. In 1939, Wright and his friend Jack Anglin formed a duo, Johnnie & Jack, for which Wells served as the “girl singer.” They toured throughout the South in the 1940s, and Wright began referring to his wife as Kitty Wells, a name taken from a 19th century song recorded in 1930 by the Pickard Family. With two sisters and a cousin she began performing in the 1930s as the Deason Sisters, and after marrying Wright in 1937, she became part of Johnnie Wright and the Harmony Girls along with Wright’s sister, Louise. Her father, Charles Cary Deason, and uncle were country musicians and her mother, Myrtle Bell Deason, was a gospel singer. 30, 1919, in Nashville, one of the very few major country stars born in the country music capital. She created the vast majority as a solo artist, but she also scored hit duets with her husband, singer Johnnie Wright her daughter, Carol Sue, and several with singers Red Foley and Webb Pierce. She placed 81 records on the Billboard Country Charts from 1952 through 1979 - 35 of those reaching the Top 10. Wells continued to have an active role at the Grand Ole Opry long after country radio stopped playing her music. She was only the third country performer - and the first female - to get the recognition, following previous country lifetime achievement award recipients Hank Williams and Roy Acuff. ![]() Wells was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1976 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991 - the same year it was also presented to Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Marian Anderson. ![]() Consequently, women were typically relegated to supporting roles on Grand Ole Opry broadcasts, on multi-act tours and rarely landed recording contracts.Īfter “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” sold more than 1 million copies, record executives began rethinking those attitudes and started signing singers such as Cline, Connie Smith, Lynn, Wynette, Parton and others. Wells was able to defy conventional wisdom in country music during the first half of the century that said audiences wouldn’t buy records from female singers and wouldn’t pay for tickets to see them perform live. “If I had never heard Kitty Wells sing, I don’t think I would have been a singer myself.” “Kitty Wells was my hero,” Lynn said Monday in a statement. The stern resolution in her voice would be echoed in subsequent recordings by Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris on through Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks and still ripples today in assertive songs by Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood.
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