Plenty of kids of famous parents entered the same industry when they were older. For Ruby Wright, she started quite young, singing with her famous country music parents, Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright. Later, Wright would launch a career of her own and join one of the most famous all-girl trios of the genre in the 1950s. And she was born on this very day, October 27, 1939.
Let’s celebrate the life and legacy of Ruby Wright by looking back at her career, shall we?
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The Legacy of Ruby Wright
Ruby Wright was born on October 27, 1939, in Nashville, Tennessee. She is the daughter of country icons Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright. Wright’s career started off when she was still a child, as she would sing backup with her parents during live performances. At the tender age of just 13, she was signed to a record deal by RCA Records. She published much of her work at that time under the name Ruby Wells, as there was already a Ruby Wright in the pop music space.
In the 1950s, Wright joined the trio ‘Nita, Rita And Ruby. The two others in the group were Rita Robbins and Anita Carter, famously of the Carter Family. Chet Atkins worked with the young women to produce a record. They had some success, but Robbins suffered from stage fright, which led to the end of the group. Wright then began performing with her sister, Carol Sue, as the duo The Wright Sisters.
Ruby Wright’s most successful song was the 1964 song “Dern Ya”, meant as an answer song to “Dang Me” by Roger Miller. That song made it to No. 13 on the US country chart and No. 4 on the Canadian country chart. She only released one solo album of the same name in 1966, and she stopped releasing music as a solo artist by the end of the 1960s.
Ruby Wright passed away on September 27, 2009, at the age of 69. She passed from a heart-related illness and was soon followed by her father, Johnnie Wright, who died exactly two years later. Both Wright and her parents left their mark on country music in beautiful ways and won’t be soon forgotten.
Photo by David Redfern/Redferns/Getty Images
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