Kitty Wells was born in
1919, as Ellen Muriel Deason.
Most of
the earlier country singers were born in the Southern states, but Kitty was unusual
in that she was actually born in Nashville Tennessee…
Her father was a brakeman on the Tennessee railroad
who also sang and played Guitar. And her mother sang Gospel.
Other members of her family were singers.
At the age of 18, she
married Johnny Wright, who was a country singer. He was part of a duo, Johnny and
Jack. Women were thought of then as “girl
singers”, and not as serious performers or song writers. Ellen adopted the stage name “Kitty Wells”
and performed with her husband but was not taken very seriously. She worked for several years until the early
50s and became depressed at the lack of attention and success. She was considering retirement.
However a music executive suggested that she
record a song “It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” which she said she thought
of as “just another song”... She was depressed and disenchanted but agreed to
do the recording. It was an “answer
song” to Hank Thompson’s cynical song “The Wild Side of Life” which blamed
women for leading men astray and being unfaithful. Thompson’s song was popular but it was highly
critical of women. And it was probably inevitable that there would be some kind
of response to it.
Kitty’s song was considered
rather shocking - It attacked men for leading women astray and said that for
every “honky tonk angel” there was some man who had drawn her into that
lifestyle...and one of the lines was “It’s a shame that the blame is on us
women”.. It was an early feminist statement, in the conservative country genre. Yet the song took off and was immensely
successful. Audiences loved it. Kitty proved
that women singers could sell well and make a lot of money... and she was now a
success. Now she became the first female country singer
to issue an LP, starting with 1956's Kitty Wells' Country Hit Parade. She also wrote songs and showed that women could
be taken seriously as country artistes. She led the way for newer women singers, like
Loretta Lynn who came along in the early 60s and who wrote songs based on her
own life as a woman... mother and housewife.
Loretta’s songs were feminist, in that they were written from a woman’s
point of view and showed that an ordinary woman at the time had a hard life but
was often still feisty and tough... Loretta sang for the woman fighting to keep her marriage together,
telling off her husband for drinking and fooling around but not having unrealistic ambitions that men would become angels or that she as a woman would have a career.....
In the 60s and 70s’s Kitty
Wells continued to have a steady career and even had her own TV show... though
it did not last long, compared with the shows by male stars like Porter
Wagoner. She and her husband had 3 children,
who all worked in the music and acting business, and was happily married for
over 70 years. Bobby her only son was an
actor and singer. Kitty and Johnny went
on touring until 2007, and then retired and she died a few months after him, at
the age of 92.
