Dottie West

Dottie West was an American Country Music Singer/Songwriter. A native of McMinnville, Tennessee, and the oldest of ten children, she suffered an abusive childhood at the hands of her father but dreamed of becoming a star. After his imprisonment, she graduated from Warren High and attended Tennessee Tech in Cookeville. After marrying Bill West, her songwriting partner and steel guitarist, the Wests began a family (daughter Shelly later became a singer) and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to appear as artists on the local Landmark Jamboree show. In 1960, they moved to Nashville, where she played hostess to then-unknown songwriters such as Willie Nelson, Roger Miller, and Kris Kristofferson. After the deaths of best friend Patsy Cline and duet partner Jim Reeves (for whom she wrote "Is This Me?"), she signed with RCA Records, and her 1964 self-written song "Here Comes My Baby" won a Grammy Award, making her the first female Country Music singer to win that honor. Membership in the Grand Ole Opry followed, launching a career that would result in over 400 self-written songs, 40 albums, 100 singles, and 16 Grammy nominations. In 1973, her signature song "Country Sunshine" became a hit Coca-Cola jingle. Following her divorce and later departure from RCA, Dottie West traded her gingham dresses for glitz and glamour with a Bob Mackie-designed wardrobe, changing the face of the modern woman in Country Music. Her duet partnership with Kenny Rogers resulted in hit albums, gold/platinum records, and vocal duo awards in 1978 and 1979. With their stadium shows, Rogers credited her with cementing his career with Country Music audiences. She married drummer Byron Metcalf in 1976. She never missed success on the Country Top 40 from 1976 to 1984 and began successfully crossing over to Pop Music. Her mentorship of Jeannie Seely, Larry Gatlin, Steve Wariner, and others helped solidify their careers as she discovered them. Signing with Liberty Records in the early 1980s, albums such as Special Delivery, Wild West, and High Times enjoyed success with her splashy Las Vegas-style stage shows. In 1982, she took time off to tour with a theatrical company. Following her divorce from Metcalf, she married Al Winters, whom she later divorced in 1990. Still greatly beloved by audiences, she continued to tour and play the Opry regularly. In 1980, West and several artist clients of her accountant faced owing back taxes on mismanaged assets. While the other artists paid their debt back, West chose to pay hers over the course of 10 years, but unfortunately did not. In 1990, she lost her mansion to bankruptcy owing nearly $1.3 million in back taxes. When she hid her belongings from the IRS, fearing the poverty she'd known as a child, they were discovered by the feds and sold to pay her debt. West planned a comeback with an album of duets but injuries from an automobile accident en route to The Grand Ole Opry claimed her life at age 58 days later following multiple surgeries. Actress Michele Lee portrayed Dottie in the 1995 made-for-television CBS movie Big Dreams and Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story. West was finally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2018 after years of fans campaigning for her inclusion
Married to Bill West.
Her daughter is Shelly West. Her granddaughter is.
Born: October 11, 1932 in McMinnville, Tennessee.
Died: September 4, 1991 in Nashville, Tennessee.