Skeeter Davis

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 recording for 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.

Davis was born Mary Frances Penick on December 30, 1931, the first of seven children born to farmer William Lee and Sarah Rachel Penick (née Roberts), in Glencoe, Kentucky. Because her grandfather thought she had extra energy for a young child, he nicknamed Mary Frances "Skeeter" (slang for mosquito), a name she carried for the rest of her life.

When Davis was a toddler, her great-uncle was convicted of murdering his brother (her maternal grandfather) in Indiana. After this incident, Davis recalled that her mother became a "bitterly depressed woman". Throughout her childhood, Davis's mother made multiple suicide attempts, several of which Davis herself prevented from being carried out: "I once slapped a bottle of Clorox she was drinking out of her mouth and sat on her hands to keep her from reaching for a butcher knife," she recalled. On one occasion, her mother attempted to leap from the family's apartment window with Davis and her infant brother in her arms. Her relationship with her mother remained strained throughout much of her life, and by Davis's account, she "couldn't seem to win my mother's respect and affection, I turned my attention toward my daddy."

In the mid-1930s, the Penick family relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio, where they remained for several years before returning to Dry Ridge. They later moved to Erlanger, Kentucky, in 1947. Davis was raised a Protestant, attending Disciples of Christ churches. As an adolescent, Davis was inspired by the music of Betty Hutton, and also developed interest in musicals, memorizing songs from films such as Stage Door Canteen (1943) and I'll Be Seeing You (1944). She would sometimes stage routines in her backyard, dancing, singing, and telling ghost stories to neighborhood children. When Davis was in seventh grade, her father relocated to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for work. Her siblings and she remained in the care of their mother, who during this time, became an alcoholic. In the summer of 1948, Davis and her family relocated to Covington, Kentucky, where her father was working as an electrician, and moved into a house owned by the Villa Madonna Academy, run by Benedictine nuns. Davis became fascinated by the sisters, and for a time considered becoming a nun.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.