Wells, Kitty (1919-2012), was an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She was popularly known as the “Queen of Country Music.” Her 1952 hit recording, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” made her the first female country singer to top the country music charts in the United States. The song, written by J. D. “Jay” Miller, was a response to the number-one country hit “The Wild Side of Life,” recorded earlier that year by the American country singer Hank Thompson and written by Arlie Carter and William Warren. Miller’s song was inspired by the lyric in Thompson’s hit, “I didn’t know God made honky tonk angels.” Wells’s recording was bold and controversial for its time. Its lyrics blamed unfaithful men for creating unfaithful women. Wells’s success helped open the door for the many female country music stars that followed, including Patsy Cline , Loretta Lynn , Tammy Wynette , and Dolly Parton .
Ellen Muriel Deason was born in Nashville on Aug. 30, 1919. Her father and uncle were country musicians, and her mother was a gospel singer. Muriel began singing as a child, and her father taught her to play guitar. Beginning in 1936, Muriel performed on radio with her two sisters and a cousin as the Deason Sisters. In 1937, Muriel married Johnnie Wright. The couple, together with Wright’s sister Louise, performed as Johnnie Wright and the Harmony Girls. In the early 1940’s, Wright gave his wife the stage name Kitty Wells, taken from an old folk ballad called “I’m A-Goin’ to Marry Kitty Wells.”
In 1949, Wells recorded her first single, “Death at the Bar.” She recorded a number of country hits with the American singer Red Foley, including “One by One” and “As Long As I Live” (both 1954). Wells’s other hits included “Cheatin’s a Sin,” “Hey Joe, ” and “Paying for That Back Street Affair” (all 1953); “Release Me” (1954); “Making Believe” and “The Lonely Side of Town” (both 1955); “Amigo’s Guitar” (co-written by Wells) and “Mommy for a Day” (both 1959); and “Heartbreak U.S.A.” (1961).
Wells was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1976. She received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991. Wells was the first female country singer to receive the award. She died on July 16, 2012.
