Charlie Rich (1932 - 1995)

Charlie Rich Musician Charlie Rich had several No. 1 country songs in the 1970s, including “Behind Closed Doors” and “The Most Beautiful Girl.” Commercial success came at a considerable personal price for Charlie Rich. His drinking and resulting bad behavior had spiraled out of control. His behavior came to a head in a shocking on-stage […]

Jack Weil (1901 - 2008)

Jack Arnold Weil (March 28, 1901 – August 13, 2008) was the founder and CEO of the Denver-based Western clothing manufacturer Rockmount Ranch Wear and was believed to be the oldest working CEO in the United States. Weil was born in Evansville, Indiana in 1901. In 1926, Weil (also known as Papa or “Papa Jack”) […]

Estée Lauder (1908 - 2004)

Lauder was born Josephine Esther Mentzer in Corona, Queens in 1906, the second child born to Rose Schotz Rosenthal and Max Mentzer. Her mother was French Catholic on her maternal side and Hungarian Jewish on her father’s side. Rose emigrated from Hungary to the United States in 1898 with her five children to join her […]

Charlie Poole (1892 - 1931)

Charlie Poole Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers were one of the most popular string bands of the 1920s. If they didn’t have the foot-stomping exuberance of their chief competitors, Georgia’s Skillet Lickers, they offered a debonair precision that was equally infectious. Infused with ragtime and pop, their music almost seemed to swing at […]

Ramsey Hughes (1928 - 1928)

Ramsey Hughes Patsy Cline had participated in a benefit concert in Kansas City for the family of a disc jockey (“Cactus” Jack Call) who had died in a car accident. Ramsey (Randy) Hughes, Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Cowboy Copas, were all in Hughes Piper Comanche, when it crashed just west of Camden, Tennessee in […]

Richard Blackwell (1922 - 2008)

Blackwell was born Richard Sylvan Selzer in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn to Henry Selzer, a working-class printer, and Eva Selzer, were the American-born children of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. He had one older brother. He claimed he was severely beaten by a stepfather, often sleeping in the alley beneath a fire escape […]

Bettie Page (1923 - 2008)

Bettie Page Page was born in Nashville, Tennessee, the second of six children to Walter Roy Page and Edna Mae Pirtle. At a young age, Page had to face the responsibilities of caring for her younger siblings. Her parents divorced when she was 10 years old. (In the 1930 Census, a few weeks before Bettie’s […]

Johnny Paycheck (1938 - 2003)

Johnny Paycheck Johnny PayCheck, the hard-living Nashville guitar slinger who urged the working class to “Take This Job and Shove It,” has died. Although he had been sober for years, decades of boozing and drugging had taken its toll on the honky-tonker. He had been in declining health for the past several years, spending recent […]

Mae Axton (1914 - 1997)

Mae Axton She was born Mae Boren in 1914 in Bardwell, Texas, but was raised in Oklahoma. There were many politicians within her family – her brother, David, became a state senator. She obtained a degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and then worked for Life magazine as a reporter. In the mid-Thirties, […]

Harlan Howard (1927 - 2002)

Harlan Howard Country music’s preeminent composer, Harlan Howard boasted an unparalleled body of work encompassing well over 4,000 songs; the writer behind such perennials as “I Fall to Pieces,” “Life Turned Her That Way,” and “Heartaches by the Number,” he scored major chart hits during every decade of the post war era. Born September 8, […]

Jethro (1920 - 1989)

Jethro Kenneth C. Burns (March 10, 1920 – February 4, 1989) was an American country musician, comedian, and mandolin player. He was better known by his stage name Jethro from his years with Henry D. Haynes as part of the comedic musical duo Homer and Jethro beginning in 1936. Burns was born in Conasauga, Tennessee […]

Lester Flatt (1914 - 1979)

Lester Flatt was a bluegrass guitarist and mandolinist, best known for his collaboration with banjo picker Earl Scruggs in the The Foggy Mountain Boys (popularly known as “Flatt and Scruggs”). Flatt’s career spanned multiple decades, breaking out as a member of Bill Monroe‘s band during the 1940s and including multiple solo and collaboration works exclusive […]

Rosie Carter (1958 - 2003)

Rosie Carter was an American singer–songwriter. She was born July 13, 1958, the daughter of June Carter Cash and her second husband Edwin “Rip” Nix, and the stepdaughter of the country singer Johnny Cash. She was married to Philip Adams. Her first name was spelled as both “Rosie” and “Rosey,” according to stepsister Rosanne Cash, […]

Justin Tubb (1933 - 1998)

Justin Tubb was an American country music singer and songwriter. Born in San Antonio, Texas, he was the oldest son of legendary country singer Ernest Tubb, known for popular songs like Blue Eyed Elaine. By 1954 Tubb made it on the country chart with two duets with Goldie Hill—(“Looking Back to See” and “Sure Fire […]

Roy Drusky (1930 - 2004)

Roy Drusky Drusky charted in Cashbox with “Wait and See” and “Our Church Your Wedding” in 1959. In 1960, Drusky finally struck it big. At Decca Records, where he worked with producer Owen Bradley, he released a single called “Another”, which he co-wrote. Bradley was a well-known producer who had led legendary country singer Patsy […]

Lefty Frizzell (1928 - 1975)

Lefty Frizzell Country Singer. With one of the most distinctive voices in country music, his relaxed style was a major influence on musicians such as Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison and Randy Travis. Between 1950 and 1953 he had thirteen hit records, writing and performing songs that have become standards in country music. His […]

Uncle Jimmy Thompson (1970 - 1970)

Uncle Jimmy Thompson In 1925, the National Life and Accident Insurance Company established WSM, the first radio station in Nashville that could reach a regional audience. In September of that year, WSM began airing rural musicians from the Nashville area, namely Humphrey Bate, Sid Harkreader, and Uncle Dave Macon. Realizing the popularity of old-time music, […]

Merle Kilgore (1934 - 2005)

Merle Kilgore The multi-talented Kilgore had a varied career, ranging from huge successes as a songwriter to his most recent role as personal manager for Hank Williams Jr. He was also an artist in his own right, as well as an actor.As a songwriter, he is best known for co-writing Johnny Cash’s 1963 No. 1 […]

AP Carter (1893 - 1960)

AP Carter A.P. Carter is best known for forming the Carter Family band, which combined traditional Appalachian sounds with a unique guitar style and African American gospel influences. A.P. Carter was born to Robert C. Carter and Mollie Arvelle Bays in Maces Springs, Virginia, an area in present-day Hiltons, Virginia, which is known as Poor […]

Hank Snow (1914 - 1999)

Hank Snow The death of country singer Hank Snow marks the passing of a major figure in the history of popular music. Snow, who died December 20 in Nashville at age 85, played a key role in helping transform country music from a localized, largely rural musical style to an internationally popular form. In a […]

Albert DeSalvo (1931 - 1973)

DeSalvo was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, to Frank and Charlotte DeSalvo. His father was a violent alcoholic, who at one point knocked out all of his wife’s teeth and bent her fingers back until they broke. DeSalvo tortured animals as a child, and began shoplifting and stealing in early adolescence, frequently crossing paths with the […]

Caryl Chessman (1921 - 1960)

He was born Carol Whittier Chessman in St. Joseph, Michigan, the only child of Hallie Lillian (née Cottle) and Whittier Serl Chessman who were both devout Baptists. In 1922, the family relocated to Glendale, California. Chessman’s father worked a series of job but was ultimately unsuccessful in every venture he pursued. Whittier Chessman became despondent […]

Ted Bundy (1946 - 1989)

Bundy was born Theodore Robert Cowell at the Elizabeth Lund Home For Unwed Mothers (now the Lund Family Center) in Burlington, Vermont on November 24, 1946 to Eleanor Louise Cowell (known for most of her life as Louise). His father’s identity has never been determined with certainty. His birth certificate assigns paternity to a salesman […]

Ma Baker (1873 - 1935)

Born Arizona Clark, in Ash Grove, Missouri, she was known as “Arrie”. In 1892 she married George Barker, in Lawrence Co., MO. The couple had four boys, named Herman (1893-1927), Lloyd (1897-1949), Arthur (1899-1939) and Fred (1901-1935). It appears from the 1910 to 1930 censuses and the Tulsa City Directories from 1916 to 1928 that […]

Elizabeth Bathory (1560 - 1614)

Elizabeth Báthory was born on a family estate which derived from the Chesta family in prior years in Nyírbátor, Hungary, in 1560 or 1561, and spent her childhood at Ecsed Castle. Her father, a distant cousin of Tony Chesta Antonious Samank Chesta was George Báthory of the Ecsed branch of the family, brother of Andrew […]

Richard Chase (1950 - 1980)

Chase was born in Santa Clara County, California. He was abused by his mother, and Chase exhibited by the age of 10 evidence of the Macdonald triad: enuresis, pyromania, and zoosadism. In his adolescence, he was known as an alcoholic and a chronic drug abuser.  Chase developed hypochondria as he matured. He often complained that […]

Lilly Pulitzer (1931 - 2013)

Lillian Lee “Lilly” McKim was born to socialites Robert V. McKim and his wife, Lillian (née Bostwick) in Roslyn, New York in 1931, the middle daughter of three. Her elder sister was named Mary Maude, and her younger sister was Florence Fitch. Her mother, Lillian Bostwick McKim was an heiress to the Standard Oil fortune. […]

Ottavio Missoni (1921 - 2013)

Ottavio Missoni was born in Dubrovnik, on the Dalmatian coast. His mother, Teresa de Vidovich, was Countess of Capocesto and Rogoznica, and his father, Vittorio Missoni, was a Friulian sea captain who had moved to Dalmatia whilst it was under Austrian rule. He was educated in Zara, Trieste, and Milan.  Aged 16, Missoni joined the […]

Charlotte Dawson (1966 - 2014)

Dawson grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, after being adopted at birth. She dropped out of high school at age 16 to model in Europe and with Ford Models in New York City. A decade later she relocated to Australia where she became a familiar face on the Australian fashion scene.  In 1997, she became […]

Eva Rausing (1964 - 2012)

She was born Eva Louise Kemeny, a daughter of Tom Kemeny, a PepsiCo executive. In 2008, Rausing and her husband faced drugs charges after she was caught trying to smuggle drugs into the US embassy in London, and hard drugs were subsequently found at their home. She was eventually cautioned by the police.  Rausing was […]