Ms. Gretchen Wilson Goes To Washington

Gretchen Wilson photo courtesy of SonyBMG Nashville.

May 6, 2009 — Gretchen Wilson’s first hit, "Redneck Woman," was a statement of personal pride, but the fact is she wasn’t entirely proud: Gretchen didn’t earn her high school diploma until April 2008; now she realizes she was shortchanging herself for years by not getting it earlier.

"I have carried around a sense of pride in me now that I just didn’t have before," she says. "I used to refer to myself as that redneck girl with an eighth grade education, you know, and I lost that little piece of myself. And that was a good thing because now I feel like I’m as deserving as any other American out there, and I feel like I’m whole. I feel like I didn’t leave something out, I didn’t neglect to do something that I should’ve done and that was there for me to do for myself. And of course, that makes me feel a lot stronger and a lot more whole. And this is definitely an overall sense of accomplishment that you can’t even hardly convey to another person, it’s something you really have to experience."

Gretchen visited Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Tuesday to address a congressional subcommittee in support of increased funding for adult education programs.

Gretchen earned her G.E.D. against enormous odds. In addition to being a single parent, her career in country music kept her on the road during the months she studied for her diploma. Her career is soon to expand with the release of a new album. According to CNSNews.com, the project will be titled I Got Your Country Right Here.