Born on This Day in 1915, the First Woman to Write a No. 1 Country Hit and Whose Songs Were Recorded by Tex Ritter, Kitty Wells, and Hank Snow

On this day (January 13) in 1915, Virginia Overstake was born in Decatur, Illinois. Later, she would take the stage name Jenny Lou Carson and make country music history, becoming the first woman to write a No. 1 country song. Her compositions were recorded by a long list of stars, including Kitty Wells, Ernest Tubb, Eddy Arnold, Willie Nelson, and Tex Ritter, among others.

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Carson got her foot in the door of the music industry as a member of the trio Three Little Maids, with her sisters. They regularly performed on local radio stations. She was the guitarist and main songwriter for the group. At the same time, she also wrote and sold songs to the cowgirl duo Girls of the Golden West. However, there was more to Carson than being a musician and songwriter. She followed in the footsteps of Annie Oakley to become a multi-talented singing cowgirl.

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After walking away from work in radio, she took time to learn a new set of skills. Carson found that she was good with a gun and trained to be a sharpshooter, according to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. She also learned to spin a lasso and crack a whip. In short, she had all the skills needed for a successful Wild West show. She and Texas Tommy teamed up to take their Western act on the road, touring the Lone Star State. Then, World War II began, and things changed.

With the war raging, Carson went back to working on the radio. At the same time, she wrote and performed several songs about the soldiers fighting overseas. As the war wound down, though, her songwriting career began to bloom.

Jenny Lou Carson Writes Hits, Makes History

Jenny Lou Carson penned songs that became hits for some of the biggest country stars of the era. For instance, Spade Cooley took her song “A Pair of Broken Hearts” to the top 10 in 1945. The next year, Eddy Arnold took “Chained to a Memory” to the top five. Arnold had several hits with Carson’s songs, including “Don’t Rob Another Man’s Castle,” “Many Tears Ago,” and “The Lovebug Itch.”

Her most historically important song, though, was “You Two-Timed Me One Time Too Often.” Tex Ritter recorded it in 1945, and it spent 11 weeks at No. 1, making Carson the first woman to write a country chart-topper.

That wasn’t her biggest hit as a songwriter, though. That title goes to “Let Me Go, Lover.” Hank Snow, Joan Weber, and Teresa Brewer all took the song to No. 1. Additionally, Patti Page made it a major pop hit.

Jenny Lou Carson went down in history as one of many trailblazing women in country music.

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