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Bonnie Lou (born Mary Joan Kath, October 27, 1924, in Towanda, Illinois) is an American rock and roll and country music singer. A musical pioneer, Bonnie Lou is recognized as one of first female rock and roll singers. She is also one of the first artists to gain crossover success from country to rock and roll. She was the "top name" on the first country music program regularly broadcast on a national TV network. Bonnie Lou was one of the first female co-hosts of a successful syndicated television talk show, and a regular musical performer on popular shows in the 1960s and 1970s. She "was a prime mover in the first days of rockabilly,"〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bonnie-lou-mn0000078496/biography )〕 and is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.rockabillyhall.com/Certificates.html )〕 ==Early life and rise to fame== Mary's parents were Arthur (1899-1977)〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152307016821572&set=pcb.359746287529669&type=1&theater )〕 and Eva Kath (1905-2000).〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=kiefer&GSiman=1&GScid=107402&GRid=21469017& )〕 She had a brother, Arthur (1926-2003), and has a sister, Eleanor.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=kath&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=16&GScnty=746&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=21479108&df=all& )〕 "I was named after my grandmother Mary, and my grandfather Joe; and my mother added the -an onto the end of it," Bonnie Lou noted in a 2007 interview.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://wvxu.org/post/king-records-cincinnati-legacy )〕 When Mary's family home in Towanda burned down, they moved to Carlock, Illinois, where her father was a tenant farmer. She grew up listening to Patsy Montana and her band "The Prairie Ramblers", and was greatly inspired by her. Mary learned how to yodel from her maternal grandmother Mary, who had emigrated from Switzerland. She started violin lessons when she was five, and her father bought her a "two dollar-and-a half pawnshop guitar" when she was 11.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.rockabillyhall.com/bonnielou1.html )〕 At just 16 in 1941, she was singing and performing on WJBC (AM) in Bloomington, Illinois. At 17, after she graduated from high school, she sent an audition record to larger KMBC in Kansas City, Missouri, and was signed to a five-year contract to perform on the ''Brush Creek Follies'' barn dance show as "Sally Carson," and with a group called The Rhythm Rangers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col/follies/stars.htm )〕 The show was broadcast nationwide on the Columbia Broadcasting Service, and has been described as "one of the biggest music programs in the country" at the time.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://kcur.org/post/charlie-pryor-and-brush-creek-follies-0 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.hillbilly-music.com/programs/story/index.php?prog=440 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col/follies/history.htm )〕 A newspaper columnist described her opening in Kansas City: “She walked out into the spotlight and the crowds went ‘Ahhhh!’.” A couple of minutes later she brought down the house! That’s the history in brief of Sally Carson’s first appearance as a regular songstress last Saturday on KMBC’s Brush Creek Follies. You can close your eyes...and even her voice bubbles over with wim, wigor, and witality. Open up though, and the secret is no longer a secret — just look at them golden tresses!” In 1945, Bill McCluskey, executive at powerhouse WLW in Cincinnati, first learned of his future star from a salesmen he met on on a train who “proceeded to rave about a young teen age country and western singer named Sally Carson who in his opinion was the best in the business..." McCluskey had the girl send a transcription of her singing to WLW. Impressed, he then requested a recording of her singing and yodeling “Freight Train Blues”. He hired her and redubbed her “Bonnie Lou” because KMBC owned the rights to “Sally Carson.” She was promptly featured on ''Boone County Jamboree'', which became ''Midwestern Hayride Country & Western Radio Program'' broadcasts and live tours.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/article/AB/20080623/NEWS0103/111110006/ )〕 Her contract with KMBC was voided because she was a minor when she signed it. Once known as Mary Jo, the Yodeling Sweetheart, Bonnie Lou now earned the devotion of listeners which would last the rest of her career. She also performed regularly with the sister duo she had listened to as a child, the Girls of the Golden West, one of whom was McCluskey's wife. During her years with WLW, Bonnie Lou often performed at country music hub Nashville, Tennessee on weekends, including several times at the Grand Ole Opry.〔 August 26, 1945 she married Glenn Ewins (1920-1964). She returned to Illinois with Ewins in 1947 when he took a job at Farmers State Bank where his father was a major stockholder and cashier,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=78686841 )〕 and had her only child, Constance, September of that year. In 1950, two masked men entered her home at one a.m., shoved her into a kitchen closet, and demanded to know where her husband was, saying they wanted him to open the bank safe for them. She told them the safe was on a timer and couldn’t be opened at night. They absconded leaving Bonnie Lou unharmed. In 1952 the Ewins family returned to Cincinnati and Bonnie Lou resumed work on Midwestern Hayride. On January 24, 1964 her husband died in a car accident in Cincinnati. His gravestone includes the portentious engravement, "Mary Joan 1924 — ".〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=21367299&PIpi=7432283 )〕 Bonnie Lou continued radio performances until the end of the 1940s. Some of her radio performances were cut to acetate and released to the public, but she didn't gain prominence as a recording artist until the 1950s. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bonnie Lou」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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