Minnie Pearl
Born Sarah Ophelia Colley, 25 October 1912, Centerville, Tennessee, USA. The daughter of a prominent businessman, she, unlike many country artists, grew up in relative luxury though under the strict supervision of her mother, who played the local church organ. She developed an interest in the stage as a small child and later, when permitted, watched vaudeville shows at a Nashville theatre, being very impressed by the act of comedienne Elviry Weaver. After graduating from high school, she attended Nashville's Ward-Belmont College, a fashionable finishing school for young ladies, where, in 1932, she acquired a degree in speech and drama. She worked as a teacher in her home-town for two years, before finding work with a company that toured the south, producing amateur plays in rural areas. In 1936, after meeting what was later described as "an amusing old mountain woman" when touring in Alabama, she began to develop her alter ego. Colley worked hard over the next few years, gradually building her act and it was not until November 1940 that she first auditioned for the Grand Ole Opry. Although the show's management had some misgivings that she would be accepted as a country character, because of her known upper-class education, she was permitted to appear on the late evening show. Roy Acuff was impressed and a few weeks later signed her to his roadshow. The audience on the night were amused and Minnie Pearl was on the Grand Ole Opry to stay, and destined to become one of its most popular stars. Minnie Pearl, dressed in her cheap frilly cotton dress and wearing a wide-brimmed hat with the price label still attached, became a Grand Ole Opry legend. After an opening catchphrase of "How-dee, I'm just so proud to be here", she chattered incessantly about the community of Grinder's Switch (an actual small railway switching point near Centerville), told appallingly corny jokes, recited comic monologues, sang (badly), included a little dance and related how one day she would catch her boyfriend, Hezzie.
Since 1940, Minnie Pearl worked with most major country stars and once featured in popular routines with the show's comedian Rod Brasfield. In 1947, she appeared on the first country show to play Carnegie Hall, New York (she returned with a second show in 1961) and also married Henry Cannon, a commercial pilot, who became her manager. She later joked, "I married my transportation". She toured extensively with the Grand Ole Opry and other shows in America and Canada and appeared in Europe, including a 1949-50 tour with her friends Hank Williams, Red Foley and Brasfield. Over the years she appeared on all major network radio and television shows. She recorded for several labels but not being a recognized vocalist, failed to find chart success to match that of her stage act. Her only country chart entry came in 1966 with a Top 10 hit in "Giddyup Go - Answer", the woman's reply to Red Sovine's country number 1. During her long career she received many awards, the most important being her election to the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1975. Her plaque reads: "Humor is the least recorded but certainly one of the most important aspects of live country music." In the early 80s, three attacks of breast cancer led to double mastectomy surgery in 1985. She was fitted with a pacemaker in 1990, but on each occasion, she soon returned to her Grand Ole Opry commitments. She made her final appearance there on 14 June 1991, when, during her usual cross-patter routine with Roy Acuff, she completely forget her lines. Acuff managed to cover the mistake, but Pearl ran off stage calling to her husband, "Henry, we've got to go home . . . right now'. Three days later, a stroke that left her partially paralyzed on the left side, brought to an end her 51-year association with the show. In 1992, by her own wishes, she entered a retirement home and from that time, she usually refused to see any visitors. Her condition slowly worsened and she died on 4 March 1996, following a further stroke. In addition to her many country music awards, in 1992 she was also presented with the National Medal of Arts by President Bush, and in 1994, she was inducted into the National Comedy Hall Of Fame.
