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A country music legend, Kitty Wells had a string of hits in the 1950s and '60s, including "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels."
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Play NowKitty Wells. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 04:04, May 21, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/kitty-wells-9527622.
Kitty Wells. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/kitty-wells-9527622 [Accessed 21 May 2013].
"Kitty Wells." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 21 2013, 04:04 http://www.biography.com/people/kitty-wells-9527622.
"Kitty Wells," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/kitty-wells-9527622 [accessed May 21, 2013].
"Kitty Wells," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/kitty-wells-9527622 (accessed May 21, 2013).
Kitty Wells [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 21] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/kitty-wells-9527622.
Kitty Wells, http://www.biography.com/people/kitty-wells-9527622 (last visited May 21, 2013).
Kitty Wells. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/kitty-wells-9527622. Accessed May 21, 2013.
Synopsis
Born in Nashville on August 30, 1919, Kitty Wells started singing as a teenager. She didn't achieve stardom, however, until she was 33. Wells became the first female solo artist to hit the top of the country charts, with 1952's "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels." She scored several more country hits over the next two decades, and kept touring until her retirement in 2000. Wells died on July 16, 2012.
Early Years
The daughter of a railroad brakeman, Muriel Ellen Deason, better known as Kitty Wells, grew up listening to her father play guitar and banjo. She took up the guitar at age 14, and soon began singing professionally on a local radio station. Wells, her sisters and a cousin performed together as the Deacon Sisters.
In 1937, at the age of 18, Wells married fellow singer Johnnie (later Johnny) Wright. For a short time, she performed with her husband and his sister as the trio Johnnie Wright and the Harmony Girls. In the 1940s, Wells served as a back-up vocalist for her husband's duo with Jack Anglin, known as Johnny and Jack. Her husband helped her pick her stage name at that time, borrowing it from the folk tune "Sweet Kitty Wells."
Career Breakthrough
At the age of 33, Wells scored her first hit: "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" (1952). She had been hired to sing a response song to Hank Thompson's hit song, "The Wild Side of Life," about a reckless woman who more interested in having a good time than settling down. Thompson's song included the lyrics, "I didn't know God made honky tonk angels," amd in her reply, Wells sang that it wasn't right to blame women for all of men's problems. "Too many times married men think they're still single" led "many a good girl to go wrong," sang Wells. Banned by the Grand Ole Opry, Wells's candid song shocked many in the country music world. It soon became a huge hit, eventually selling more than a million copies.
Kitty Wells became the first female solo act reach the No. 1 spot on the country charts. More hits soon followed, including "One by One," a duet with Red Foley. With a twang in her strong, clear voice, Wells often explored different forms of heartbreak in her songs. She had a traditional and somewhat staid stage appearance, choosing to wear conservative-looking gingham dresses rather than fancy or flashy clothes.
Wells may have convincingly conveyed pain and loneliness on stage, but she and her husband had a loving and stable relationship. Wells and Wright often toured together, becoming more of a family act. The couple even had their own syndicated television show in the late 1960s, which also featured their son, Bobby, and daughters Carol Sue and Ruby.
By the 1970s, Wells rarely made the country music charts, but she remained a fixture on the concert circuit for decades. She and her husband started their own label, Ruboca Records, in 1979. They also opened up the Family Country Junction Museum in Madison, Tennessee, in the early 1980s. While the museum has since closed, their recording studio remains open and is run by one of their grandchildren.
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