Minnie Pearl

 

 

We know a lot of comedians, but most of the ones that are famous are men. A relative few are well known women.

 

We have some trailblazers, Sophie Tucker was a nice jewish lady who had to start out in black face, because the managers of the theaters told her she was too ugly to be a white woman. She sang mainly bawdy funny songs.

 

Then came Pearl Williams and Belle Barthe, who Lenny Bruce said was so blue, he blushed.

 

Then, we have a true original Moms Mably, who went on stage without her teeth.

 

Gracie Allen was the foil for straight man, George Burns, who was also her husband. Guess who played the ditzy one.

 

Mae West used her sexuality to get her humor and point across, she got very well paid, and did well in business. 

 

Betty White had the first television comedy sitcom, "Life with Elizabeth". It started out as a radio show.

 

She was on the start of tv. She learned it all from the ground up.

 

Lucille Ball had the best timing of anyone bar none. She and her husband Dezi Arnaz created the DesiLu television network. Which produced lots of shows. She herself had three. 

 

Totie fields was under five feet and showed up on everything.

 

Phyliss Diller had the worst wigs in history, bad fashion sense, and a husband named Fang.

 

Joan Rivers broke through several ceilings and kept plastic surgeons in business.

 

And Carol Burnett was one of the best of them all.

 

But, my story is about a wonderful comedian who seldom got press. But worked almost all her life for the grand ole opry as a breakthrough woman comedian. Minnie Pearl.

 

Sara Ophelia Colley Cannon was born in Centerville, Tennessee on October 25, 1912. She left the world in Nashville, Tennessee on March 4th, 1996.  

 

She was born to a prosperous family. Her father owned the big timber mill. She was the youngest girl of five. She wanted to be an opera singer or dramatic actress like Kathryn Hepburn. And, she had never listened to country music.

 

She went to a girl's finishing school and studied drama. She also studied dancing. Fancy dancing.

 

After college she taught dancing for several years. Times were lean. She went on the road with a tour company that went into small towns and trained people to put on their own productions. It was at this time the idea of Minnie Pearl started percolating. She did the openings and acted in many of the productions.

 

While in Alabama she stayed with a family and loved the speech patterns of the mountain people in the area and started building an alter ego. "Cousin Minnie Pearl". 

 

Minnie Pearl first appeared in Aiken, South Carolina in 1939. She borrowed her mother's hat and bought some plastic flowers to stick on it to make it "purty". She did not notice that the flowers still had the price tag on them.  

 

While on stage, she moved around a lot, and shook her head, and the price tag slid out. She thought on it, and said, that little accident kinda summed up Minnie Pearl. She was country and she knew it, and history was made. 

 

She made appearances here and there and slowly gained an audience. A year later at a bankers convention in Centerville, Bigwigs from the radio station at WSM saw her act and asked her to audition for the Grand Ole Opry.

 

She joined on November 30, 1940 and played until 1991. Within a week she had over 300 messages and letters piling up in their offices for "Minnie", they had never seen the like. As soon as she hollered out, "HOWDEE!", we knew who was there. She later added. "I'm so proud to be here". And, she ended with " I love you so much, it hurts!"

 

Well, we were proud she was there too. My daddy listened, and then watched  "The Grand Ole Opry" every Saturday night of his life. And, when she went on Hee Haw he watched that too. She was on that show from 1969 to 1991. 

 

She also toured with Roy Acuff and so many others. She was on game shows like Hollywood Squares and Match Game  among others. After her father died, she became the sole support of her family.

 

She created a whole life for Minnie Pearl. While at the Grand Ole Opry, they told her that since she mentions her home town all the time, she should give it a name. Her sister Virginia among others mentioned the tiny town of "Grinder's Switch. It was right next to Centerville.  It was a railroad switching station, and not a whole lot more. She said, as there were not a  lot of people there that might not take to her making fun of them, so, she would use it. It was a good name.

 

She created a whole family. "Uncle Nabob", "Aunt Ambrosia", "Lucifer Hucklehead", "Miss Lizzie Tinkum", "Doc Payne", and "Brother" clever at times and dumb as dirt at others.  Minnie was always on the lookout for menfolk, but never quite caught them.

 

She followed the blessed few to the "Opry" show "Prince Albert" in 1942. She teamed up with Red Brasfield in 1948 until he died in 1958. They swapped being the straight man. It kept things peppy. They did not follow a strict routine, they did off the cuff stuff too. Minnie really excelled at that. Also, in the fifties she joined the cast of :Ozark Jubilee" on ABC. She was everywhere.

 

Minnie kept busy; she went on "The Tonight Show", "The Jonathan Winters Show", and "The Carol Burnett Show", among others. In the eighties she went on the Ralph Emery show every Friday on TNN for the "Let Minnie steal your Joke" segment.

 

In 1947 she met Henry R. Cannon who flew planes in WW2 for the Army Air Core. He owned and flew for his own country celebrity flying service. He started managing her too, at her request. She got wealthy and he still flew. She was his number one customer of course. 

 

 She made a few albums, and had a couple top ten single songs.. Giddyup Go Answer, Gotta marry off our Daughter( with Grandpa Jones), and Old maid of Grinders Switch were her biggest ones. And she showed up on a lot of other peoples albums too.

 

She never slowed down much, even when she under went a double mastectomy with radiation she kept going. She gave her money, time, and name to several cancer centers , which branched out into twenty more. They even have one in the U.K. The "Sarah Cannon Research Center".

 

In 1975 she won the County MusicHall of Fame award.

 

In 1987,  Minnie Pearl received the American's Golden Plate Award, given by "The Academy of  Country Music" presented by Johnny Cash, at an awards ceremony in Nashville.

 

In 1992, was awarded the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the United States government for her half-century of work.

 

In 2002, she was ranked as number 14 on CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music list.

 

Minnie Pearl gave her last show in Joliet ,Illinois, on June 15, 1991. Only two days later she suffered a near fatal stroke. She was left bedridden.  She had a great deal of visitors the five years she graced that Nashville nursing home.

Her eventual death after another big stroke at the age of 83 on March, 4, 1996 hurt the world. She is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Franklin. Tennesee.

She touched so many people in her life. No one who met her ever forgot her.  She is a fine example of the Mark Twain quote: May you live a life so full  and so well, that even the undertaker is sorry you are gone."  

 

The world is a little less without her in it.

                   

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You can catch a small tribute biography on PBS for free. "Facing the Laughter: Minnie Pearl"

 

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