West, Dottie (1932–1991)

American country-western singer and songwriter who was the first female vocalist to win a Grammy Award for country music . Born Dorothy Marie Marsh in McMinnville, Tennessee, on October 11, 1932; died of injuries sustained in a car accident in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 4, 1991; daughter of Hollis Marsh; Tennessee Technological University, B.A. in music; married Bill West (a guitarist, divorced 1969);married Byron Metcalf (a drummer, divorced 1980); married Al Winters (a sound technician), in 1983 (divorced 1991); children: four, including country star Shelly West .

Recorded celebrated duets with Jim Reeves, Don Gibson, Jimmy Dean, and Kenny Rogers; became first female vocalist to win a Grammy Award for country music (1964).

Dottie West was born Dorothy Marie Marsh on October 11, 1932, in McMinnville, Tennessee, the first of ten children. Her position as the oldest sibling in a large, poverty-stricken family forced her to shoulder a significant amount of backbreaking work, including laboring in the cotton and sugar-cane fields and cooking Paul-Bunyan-sized meals. Worse, she suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her father, an alcoholic.

West's extreme childhood circumstances could not derail her dreams. She began formal music lessons while still a teenager, financed by a series of part-time jobs which also paid for her college education at the Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville. There the music major met her future first husband, Bill West, who played a mean steel guitar in addition to his engineering studies. The pair began to perform together around campus and soon married. Although Bill held a job with a Cleveland electronics company after graduation, the Wests continued to make appearances together, including a regular slot on a local Cleveland television show, "Landmark Jamboree." The exposure was enough to win Dottie a contract with Starday Records in 1959, and she moved with Bill to the nation's country-western capital, Nashville, in expectation of making it big in the entertainment business.

Success was not so immediate, but West profited from her exposure to future country-western greats such as Willie Nelson, Hank Cochran, Roger Miller, and Patsy Cline . Through informal jam sessions with these and other musicians, Dottie discovered a latent songwriting ability which she quickly put to good use. Her first hit "Is This Me?," recorded by Jim Reeves in 1961, gained her a BMI Writer's Award. She started a successful duet career with Reeves which included the top-ten "Love is No Excuse," but Reeves' premature death in a 1964 plane crash brought their partnership to an end. It was the first of several profitable duet-pairings for West which, at times, overshadowed her solo work.

Chet Atkins of RCA Records liked the combination of her voice and her compositions enough to give her a long-term contract in 1962, and within two years she wrote the first of her smash hits, "Here Comes My Baby." The song became a landmark in the music business, and earned her a Grammy Award in 1964, as the first female country star to win the coveted industry award. The song eventually made it into the repertoires of over 100 pop and country artists to cement its place in the pantheon of country classics.

West produced several other chart-topping songs in the 1960s, including "Would You Hold It Against Me?," "Paper Mansions," "Rings of Gold," "I was Born a Country Girl," "Gettin' Married Has Made Us Strangers," "What's Come Over My Baby?," and "Mommy, Can I Still Call Him Daddy?" Her songs about breakups proved prophetic as Dottie and Bill West divorced in 1969.

West's talent and beauty made her a good fit for television, and she became a regular cast member on the long-running "Grand Ole Opry" television show. Besides this permanent position, West did guest spots on several other country-themed programs throughout the 1960s, such as "The Jimmy Dean Show," "Country Music Hall," and "The Faron Young Show," and even branched briefly into movies with appearances in Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar and There's a Still on the Hill. However, her greatest television success proved to be in commercial spots she wrote for the Coca-Cola company. In 1970, West contributed an ad for Coke, based on her "Country Girl" song, that proved so popular the company gave her a lifetime contract. In the first seven years, she provided music for 15 Coke commercials, including the "Country Sunshine" jingle that won her a Clio Award for best commercial of the year in 1973. Her success in advertising helped bolster her singing career, which had declined in the early 1970s, even though her European tours won her the honor of being named England's best American female country-music singer in 1972 and 1973.

In 1976, West made a pivotal career move when she switched to the United Artists record company and recorded the hit single "When It's Just You and Me." The change freed her up to record duets with her good friend Kenny Rogers, who was also on the label. His contribution to her song "Every Time Two Fools Collide" helped propel it to the top of the country charts and led to a full album of West-Rogers songs. Within three years, the album Every Time Two Fools Collide had gone gold with over 550,000 copies sold. Their follow-up album, Classics,

was an even bigger success after its release in 1979, and several hit singles, such as "Anyone Who Isn't Me Tonight," "Til I Can Make It On My Own," and "All I Ever Need Is You," opened up new avenues for both country artists. West and Rogers commanded some of the largest concert halls in the United States for their performances, and West was a guest on "The Tonight Show" as well as several other talk shows. In both 1978 and 1979, the pair took home the Vocal Duo of the Year award from the Country Music Association.

West's whirlwind schedule of television work, concerts, and recording continued into the 1980s, with 320 appearances in 1980 alone. She also released solo albums such as Special Delivery in 1980 and Wild West the next year, both of which yielded significant hits, such as "Are You Happy Baby?" and "A Lesson in Leavin'." However, her career took a nosedive as the 1980s drew on, with only minor hits between 1981 and 1985. The beginning of the 1990s proved to be even more cruel, as disaster descended on the middle-aged star. Not only did she divorce her third husband, Al Winters, she also faced several lawsuits stemming from her declaration of bankruptcy in 1991. The IRS demanded almost $1 million in back taxes and fines and auctioned off virtually everything she owned, including the rights to some 400 songs she had written.

On August 30, 1991, West was running late for her appearance on the "Grand Ole Opry," and car trouble forced her to solicit the help of an elderly neighbor to drive her there. Barreling at high speeds to get West to her engagement on time, the neighbor drove off the ramp of the car park and crashed. Both West and the driver received critical injuries in the accident, with West in more serious condition with a ruptured liver. A series of operations failed to control the bleeding, and she died a few days later, on September 4, 1991.

sources:

Read, Phyllis J., and Bernard L. Witlieb. The Book of Women's Firsts. NY: Random House, 1992.

Stambler, Irwin and Grelun Landon. The Encyclopedia of Folk, Country & Western Music. 2nd ed. NY: St. Martin's Press, 1983.

related media:

"Big Dreams & Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story" (2 hr. television movie), starring Michele Lee , first aired on CBS on January 22, 1995 (also includes reminiscences by Larry Gatlin, Kris Kristofferson, Loretta Lynn , Willie Nelson, and Dolly Parton ).

Malinda Mayer , writer and editor, Falmouth, Massachusetts