Singer Kitty Wells, whose hits such as Making Believe and It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels made her the first female superstar of country music, died Monday. She was 92.
Her solo recording career lasted from 1952 to the late 1970s and she made concert tours from the late 1930s until 2000.
She recorded approximately 50 albums, had 25 Top 10 country hits and went around the world several times. From 1953 to 1968, various polls listed Wells as the No. 1 female country singer.
In 1976, she was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame and 10 years later received the Pioneer Award from the Academy of Country Music. In 1991 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences — the group that presents the Grammy Awards.
Her 1955 hit Making Believe was on the movie soundtrack of Mississippi Burning that was released 33 years later. Among her other hits were The Things I Might Have Been, Release Me, Amigo's Guitar, Heartbreak USA, Left to Right and a version of I Can't Stop Loving You.
In 1989, Wells collaborated with Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn and k.d. lang on the record The Honky Tonk Angels Medley.
Her songs tended to treasure devotion and home life, with titles like Searching (For Someone Like You) and Three Ways (To Love You). But her It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels gave the woman's point of view about the wild side of life. The song opened the way for women to present their view of life and love in country music. It also encouraged Nashville songwriters to begin writing from a woman's perspective.
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