Kitty Wells Sets Precedent

Kitty Wells photo courtesy of countrymusichalloffame.com.

Aug. 18, 2008 — The late Roy Acuff, a Grand Ole Opry icon who was known as "the King of Country Music," is credited with giving Kitty Wells the nickname "the Queen of Country Music." But even Roy was skeptical about whether or not she could draw an audience. That’s one of the ways in which she was a quiet revolutionary in Nashville.

The Country Music Hall of Fame officially opened a new exhibit, Kitty Wells: Queen Of Country Music, on Friday, and Kitty sat down at the Hall on Saturday for a public interview with WSM personality Eddie Stubbs that stretched more than two hours.

Kitty travelled in her peak years with husband Johnnie Wright and his duo, Johnnie & Jack, and it was Johnnie’s idea to give her top billing over the men on the live dates. Roy thought Johnnie had lost his mind.

Roy "said he couldn’t spotlight a woman like that," Kitty recalled. "John said, ‘I’m gonna do it anyway.’"

"Thank God," she said, "we proved ‘em all wrong."

Kitty Wells: Queen Of Country Music, sponsored by GAC, demonstrates her role in the genre. Her classic "It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" was the first single by a woman to top the Billboard country charts, and her success opened the door for such later female singers as Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Barbara Mandrell. The Kitty Wells exhibit — which includes career-related artifacts such as awards, stage clothing and reproductions of telegrams from her famous peers — remains open through June 14, 2009.