Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music Gets Exhibit

Radio, Grand Ole Opry Banned Her 1st Song but Fans Made It A Hit

Nov 25, 2008 Lisa L. Rollins

In 1952, she became country music's first bona-fide female star with her once-controversial debut single, and today, she has her very own career-commemorating exhibit.

At 89, the inaugural Queen of Country Music, Kitty Wells, is not only the oldest living member and second-ever female to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, but one of the few handpicked, genre-transforming artists to earn an exhibit within the heralded shrine of all country music shrines.

Open since August 2008, the biographical exhibit titled Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music is presented by the Great American Country Television Network, also known as GAC, and will run through June 14, 2009, in the East Gallery of the Nashville-based Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Traditional Country Music History: Kitty Wells First Female to Reach No. 1 on Charts

Kyle Young, museum director, said the current display in honor of Wells-whose breakthrough single, It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, sold more than 800,000 copies upon its initial release and was temporarily banned-will explore how the soft-spoken country-music icon and dignified mother of three succeeded in tearing down country music's gender barrier to score the first No. 1 by a female country singer.

Because of her many career accomplishments, including becoming the first female country artist to release her own LP, 1956's Country Hit Parade for Decca Records, Wells became a role model for generations of female artists, including superstars Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire.

"Kitty Wells is, quite simply, a trailblazer," Young said. "Her many hits-including her signature song, It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, were sung from a woman's point of view, something that was new to country music at that time."

Queen of Country Music's Hit Song Banned at Country Radio, Grand Ole Opry

Recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1971, Wells first began performing with husband Johnnie Wright. She was approached to record her signature song by Decca Records executive Paul Cohen in Owen Bradley's now-famous studio. Aside sitting at No. 1 on the U.S. country charts for six weeks, It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, with its premise that deceitful men can blame only themselves for fallen women, became a crossover hit and reached No. 27 on Billboard's pop charts.

The now-legendary cut was an "answer song" to Hank Thompson's smash titled The Wild Side of Life, but because of its subject matter, Wells' tune was banned for a time on some radio stations and on the Grand Ole Opry. In the end, though, its huge popularity ultimately earned Wells membership in the coveted opry.

Immensely popular commercially throughout the 1950s and '60s, Wells, to this day, ranks as the sixth most successful female vocalist in the history of Billboard's country charts, reported historian Joel Whitburn in his The Top 40 Country Hits book.

Female Country Music Pioneer Makes History Yet Again

The first female country singer to earn her own syndicated TV show in 1969, the history-making Wells "was marketed as a solo performer in an industry where women previously had performed only as members of family groups," Young observed. "Her success in selling records and concert tickets led record companies to open their doors to women artists. Many of contemporary country music's biggest stars are women, but Kitty Wells is the prototype."

The exhibit in honor of the singer-songwriter, who was born Ellen Muriel Deason on Aug. 30, 1919, in Nashville, features an array of "splendid stage costumes, vintage photos, awards, instruments, posters and advertisements, personal correspondence and career-spanning audio and video of both Wells and Wright," who have now been married 71 years.

"We are grateful to both Kitty and her husband, country star Johnnie Wright, for opening up their lives and home to us and allowing us to tell their extraordinary story," Young said.

For more information about the exhibit, please contact the museum at www.countrymusichallof fame.com.

Sources

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to Open Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music Presented by Great American Country Television Network, press release. Accessed Nov. 18, 2008, via personal communication.

Kitty Wells, Wikipedia entry. Accessed Nov. 23, 2008.

The copyright of the article Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music Gets Exhibit in Country Music is owned by Lisa L. Rollins. Permission to republish Kitty Wells: Queen of Country Music Gets Exhibit in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Kitty Wells, the Queen of Country Music	Kitty Wells at her exhibit	Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright
Kitty Wells portrait by Walden Fabrey, 1954	Kitty Wells exhibit logo