Born 118 Years Ago Today in Arkansas, the Singing Cowgirl Who Became Country Music’s First Million-Selling Female Star

On this day (October 30) Ruby Blevins was born in Beaudry, Arkansas. The world remembers her better by her stage name Patsy Montana. She was a singer, yodeler, and multi-instrumentalist who influenced superstars like Patsy Cline and Dottie West. Her signature song, “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart,” made her the first woman in country music to release a million-selling single.

Montana left Arkansas for California in her teens. There, she studied violin at UCLA. Additionally, a talent contest win earned her a slot on a Los Angeles-based radio station. She performed as Rubye Blevins, the Yodeling Cowgirl from San Antone. Before leaving the West Coast, she joined the Montana Cowgirls and performed on KMIC with Stuart Hamblen and silent film star and rodeo champ Monte Montana. When the group disbanded, she returned to Arkansas, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In 1932, she and her brothers took their family’s prize watermelon to Chicago to compete in the World’s Fair. There, she met her pen pals, Millie and Dolly Good, who performed as the Girls of the Golden West. They helped her get an audition to perform on the city’s AM radio station WLS. Then, she joined the Kentucky Ramblers. They changed their name to the Prairie Ramblers and took on a Western image after Montana joined the band. The Prairie Ramblers backed her on “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart.”

Patsy Montana Makes History

“I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart” started its life at “Texas Plains,” written by Stuart Hamblen. She initially changed a few of the lyrics and titled it “Montana Plains.” She went back to the song later to make more changes. Eventually, she settled on the title “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart.”

Montana didn’t just change the lyrics, though. She and the Prairie Ramblers embellished the simple arrangement. However, many of Hamblen’s original lyrics remained. As a result, he shared co-writing credit on the single when she released it in 1935.

[RELATED: How a Trip to Chicago With a Prize Watermelon Kickstarted Patsy Montana’s Iconic Country Western Career]

Montana continued to perform for the rest of her life. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996 and died the same year.

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