Skeeter Davis | |
---|---|
![]() Davis performing in 1972 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Mary Frances Penick |
Born | Dry Ridge, Kentucky, U.S. | December 30, 1931
Died | September 19, 2004 (aged 72) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
Genres | |
Occupation(s) |
|
Instruments |
|
Years active | 1947–2002 |
Labels |
|
Formerly of | The Davis Sisters |
Spouse(s) | Kenneth DePew
(m. 1956; div. 1959) |
Skeeter Davis (born Mary Frances Penick; December 30, 1931 – September 19, 2004) was an American country music singer and songwriter who sang crossover pop music songs including 1962's "The End of the World". She started out as part of the Davis Sisters as a teenager in the late 1940s, eventually landing on RCA Victor. In the late 1950s, she became a solo star.
One of the first women to achieve major stardom in the country music field as a solo vocalist, she was an acknowledged influence on Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton and was hailed as an "extraordinary country/pop singer" by The New York Times music critic Robert Palmer.[1]