Country music pioneer Kitty Wells dies
By The Week Staff | July 17, 2012
P
ioneering country music singer Kitty Wells died on Monday at age 92, from complications of a stroke. Wells had been about to quit music in 1952 when, at age 33, she recorded what became her signature song, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels." That surprise hit spent six weeks at the top of the country charts and crossed over into the pop Top 40, convincing Nashville record executives to give record contracts to other female performers. Wells was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1976 and given a lifetime achievement award by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 1991, a rare honor for country performers.
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