Kitty Wells, Country Music Star, Dies at 92

Kitty Wells, Country Music Star, Dies at 92

NASHVILLE (Reuters) – Kitty Wells, a singer dubbed the “Queen of Country Music,” died on Monday at her Tennessee home, according to family members. She was 92.

Wells, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, died ofcomplications from a stroke, her family said in a statement.

Born Ellen Muriel Deason, Wells began her career in 1937 with husband Johnnie Wright, half of the duo Johnnie & Jack. He died in 2011.

She adopted the stage name Kitty Wells and was the first female singer to reach the top of the country charts with her 1952 song “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”

She went on to be the top female singer in country music in the 1950s and 1960s and was inducted into the Country Music Hallof Fame in 1976.

(Reporting by Timothy Ghianni; Editing by James B. Kelleher and Greg McCune)

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