Jenny Lou Carson

Infobox musical artist
Name = Jenny Lou Carson


Img_capt =
Img_size =
Landscape =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Virginia Lucille Overstake
Alias = Lucille Lee
Born = Birth date|1915|1|13|
Decatur, Illinois, U.S.
Died = death date and age|1978|12|16|1915|1|13
Origin =
Instrument = Singer, Guitar
Genre = Country
Occupation = Country music singer-songwriter
Years_active =
Label =
Associated_acts =
URL =
Current_members =
Past_members =
Notable_instruments =

Jenny Lou Carson, (January 13, 1915 - December 16, 1978) was an American county singer/songwriter and the first woman to write a #1 country music hit.

Early life

Born Virginia Lucille Overstake in Decatur, Illinois, Carson began her professional music career at age 17 in 1932, performing with her sisters Evelyn and Eva (AKA: Judy Martin) Overstake as the "Three Little Maids" on the WLS (AM) National Barn Dance show in Chicago. Carson also performed briefly as Winnie in the trio "Winnie, Lou, and Sally" (WLS). The Overstake sisters also performed as "The Little Country Girls".

Career

She recorded under the name Lucille Lee with the Sweet Violet Boys, A.K.A. The Prairie Ramblers.

Later, in the 1940’s she began writing songs as Jenny Lou Carson and during World War II wrote popular songs about soldier boys and home. She was know as the “Radio Chin-Up Girl” and received lots of fan letters from servicemen and their families.

Carson wrote a great many songs for a number of country music stars such as Roy Acuff, Eddy Arnold, and Ernest Tubb. Carson wrote songs for her brother-in-law Red Foley and co-wrote with Al Hill, a pseudonym used by Fred Wise, Kathleen Twomey, and Ben Weisman the 1954 popular hit "Let Me Go, Lover!". "Let Me Go, Lover!" was first performed by eighteen year old Joan Weber and subsequently recorded by Hank Snow, Teresa Brewer, Peggy Lee, Patti Page, and Sunny Gale.

Jenny Lou Carson also authored "Jealous Heart" for Tex Ritter, a song that stayed on the hit charts for twenty three weeks in 1945, and "You Two-Timed Me Once Too Often", which stayed at #1 on the country charts for eleven weeks in 1945.

Her songs have been professionally recorded by over 180 artists.

In 1971 she was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Partial List of Carson's Songs

*A Pair of Broken Hearts (1945) (Co-written by Fred Rose)
*A Penny For Your Thoughts (1947)
*Blues in My Heart (1949) (Co-written by Red Foley)
*Chained to a Memory (1946)
*C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S (1949) (co-written by Eddy Arnold)
*Darling, What More Can I Do? (1945) (Co-written by Gene Autry)
*Don't Rob Another Man's Castle (1949) (#1 Hit for Eddy Arnold)
*Down by the Rippling Stream (We'll go a-strolling) (1942)
*Echo of Your Footsteps (1949)
*Foolish tears (1947)
*If I Never Get to Heaven
*I Left My Heart in Texas (1940)
*I'd Trade All of My Tomorrows (For Just One Yesterday)
*Jealous Heart (1944)
*The Keys to the Kingdom (1952)
*Let Me Go, Lover! (1953) (co-written by A. Hill)
*Lovebug Itch (1950) (co-written by Roy Botkin)
*Many Tears Ago (1945)
*Marriage Vow (1949)
*Never Trust a Woman (1947)
*One little tear-drop too late (1946)
*Penny for your thoughts (1947)
*You Two-Timed Me One Time Too Often (1945)

References

*Rogers, Arnold & Langley, Jerry (2005). "Many Tears Ago: The Life and Times of Jenny Lou Carson". Nova/Nashville Books. ISBN 0-9628452-4-8

External links

* [http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/fame/carson.html Jenny Lou Carson at the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame]
* [http://www.hillbilly-music.com/library/books/index.php?id=3964 Many Tears Ago The Life and Times of Jenny Lou Carson]