Kitty Wells, who was on the verge of quitting music to be a homemaker when she recorded a hit in 1952 that struck a chord with women and began opening doors for them in country music, died on Monday at her home in Madison, Tenn. She was 92.
The cause was complications of a stroke, said her grandson John Sturdivant Jr.
Ms. Wells was an unlikely and unassuming pioneer. When she recorded "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," she was a 33-year-old wife and mother intending to retire from the business to devote herself to her family full time. The only reason she made the record, she told the weekly newspaper Nashville Scene in 1999, was to collect the union-scale wage ($125) that the session would bring. ...
She appeared on some of the biggest radio hoedowns of the day, including "Louisiana Hayride" and the weekly Grand Ole Opry broadcast. ...
Ms. Wells had her own syndicated television show in 1968 and made a country-rock album with members of the Allman Brothers and the Marshall Tucker Band in 1974. She was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1976. ...
More (w/photo):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/arts/music/kitty-wells-country-singer-dies-at-92.html
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