Maybelle Carter

Maybelle Carter (May 10, 1909 - October 23, 1978), popularly known as Mother Maybelle Carter, was an American country musician and a member of The Carter Family, a singing group who had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, southern gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s. She had three daughters, Helen Carter, Valerie June Carter (later known as June Carter Cash, following June's marriage to Johnny Cash), and Anita Carter. When the original Carter Family trio stopped recording together in 1943, Maybelle Carter formed Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters with her three daughters. They toured during the 1950s and 1960s. She was born Maybelle Addington on May 10, 1909 near Nickelsville, Virginia, USA. She was the guitarist, and also played autoharp and banjo, in The Carter Family, a seminal country group formed in 1927 by her brother-in-law, A. P. Carter. She was widely respected and loved by the Grand Ole Opry community of the early 1950s, and was popularly known as Mother Maybelle. Maybelle and her daughters toured during the 1950s and 1960s as Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters, frequently touring with Johnny Cash (her son-in-law from 1968 on); Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters were regular featured performers on Cash's weekly network variety show from 1969-71. Maybelle also briefly toured with former Carter Family member, Sara Carter, during the 1960s folk music revival. Maybelle Carter died in 1978 after a few years of poor health, and was interred in Hendersonville Memory Gardens, Hendersonville, Tennessee. She was the subject of her granddaughter Carlene Carter's 1993 song "Me and the Wildwood Rose". In 2002 she was ranked #8 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women of Country Music. In 2005, she was portrayed by Sandra Ellis Lafferty in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.