It was New Year’s Eve 2000 when Kitty Wells walked on stage for the last time. She was 81 years old and had been singing professionally since the 1930s. That small room in Nashville was a far cry from the chart toppling records and the Hall of Fame honors but it was where she chose to end her performing life. The woman who began as a girl singer became the Queen of Country Music and her name on every record was given to her by her husband.
Her real name was Ellen Muriel Deason. She was born in Nashville in 1919 to a railroad brakeman who taught her guitar when she was 14. In 1937 she married Johnnie Wright and joined his act as the girl singer a role that kept wives in the background while their husbands led the show. Johnnie Wright took her stage name from a 19th century song called Sweet Kitty Wells and she became Kitty Wells. Roy Acuff who toured with them warned Wright not to let her headline. He believed women could not sell records. RCA recorded her but her solo singles did nothing. For 16 years Kitty Wells had nearly no success.
Everything changed in May 1952. Decca Records put her in a studio to record an answer song to Hank Thompson The Wild Side of Life. The song was It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels. It used a melody that had been around for generations but the lyrics struck a chord. The single hit No 1 on the country charts. It sold a million copies. Kitty Wells became the first solo woman to reach the top of the country chart and the first female solo artist to sell a million records.
Not everyone approved. NBC called the song too suggestive and refused to play it on the network. The BBC banned it outright. But the public kept buying. Kitty Wells had proven that a woman could lead a record and change the industry. Her success opened doors for other female artists.
In 1976 she entered the Country Music Hall of Fame the third woman ever elected as a solo artist. In 1991 she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award alongside Bob Dylan and John Lennon. Before her only Hank Williams and Roy Acuff had received the same honor from the country world. The industry that had once dismissed her now had to remember her name.
Kitty Wells never performed alone for long. She and Johnnie Wright created the Kitty Wells Johnnie Wright Family Show featuring their three children. They kept touring for two decades after her hits faded. Their lives stayed on the road with music always at the center.
Her final show took place on December 31 2000 at the Nashville Nightlife Theater. Johnnie Wright died in 2011 just a month before their 75th wedding anniversary. Kitty Wells followed him on July 16 2012. But the story she created did not end with her.
She started as the girl singer. She ended as a legend.