Dorothy Marie Marsh was the real name of Dottie West. She was born in DeKalb Country, Tennessee on October 11, 1932. There were ten Brothers and sisters and she was the oldest.
Daisies and roses were Dottie’s favourite flowers. One of the favourite colours for Dottie were—yellow and pastel peach. And for the perfumes, Dottie enjoyed Flambeau by Fabergé and Oscar De La Renta the most.
Dottie was 5’5½; tall, “I was blessed with long legs,” once said Dottie. Also, she wore a size 6 and a half in shoe.
At the age of 12, Dottie watched a movie for the very first time. The movie, which was a Western one, was watched by her on a certain Saturday morning. As a twelve year old girl, Dottie was very frightened by the following scenes of violence and shooting. But, as destiny would have it, Dottie would later partake in on stage performances and act in films.
She recognized Roger Miller as her chief songwriting teacher and acknowledged that he was the first person with whom she had ever tried to write a song with.
In 1960, there was a tradition in Nashville to nickname one another. Dottie’s first husband Bill’s nickname was “Orville” where “Beulah” was the nickname of Dottie given by Justin Tubb, though the name was disliked by Dottie herself. Her first professional nickname was “The Sweetheart of Country Music,” given by her fans and DJ’s. Later she became “Miss Country Sunshine” permanently, forever in 1973.
The sight of a standing ovation was a part and parcel of her performances at shows and concerts. Dottie always enjoyed receiving a standing ovation.
Bob Mackie was handsomely remunerated for his endeavours of bringing Dottie’s fashion up to-date. In the late 70s’ and early 80s’, Dottie paid him $10,000 a year to develop her stage wardrobe. “I enjoy the clothes, the costumes that Bob Mackie designs for me,” acknowledged Dottie.
Dottie made her radio debut when she was 12 years old. She sang the Eddy Arnold song “Big Bouquet of Roses” on McMinnville’s WMMT radio station, which was owned by Hal Durham, who became the vice-president and general manager of the Grand Ole Opry in 1974. He shaped and molded the lives of numerous singers and musicians by recruiting them on the reputable country music show.
Eddy Arnold was one of many artists who recorded Dottie’s “Here Comes My Baby.” Dottie decided to record an entire album of Eddy’s songs named “Dottie Sings Eddy” which was released in 1969. Eddy had later mentioned his wish to record more songs written by Dottie. The only problem as he said was the sadness of Dottie’s songs.
Dottie’s songwriting talent came to the fore when she penned “Frog Pond Boogie” at a tender age of 11 years and while being enrolled as a seventh grade student. A real-life tragic incident, in which a little girl named Cathey Fiscus was trapped in a well, became the plot for Dottie’s second song. Afterwards, Dottie reminisced of the story in connection with the song, “I remember when I wrote this song I cried and cried for this little girl, it was so terrible. Then not long after that a song came out about it and I remember I said, ‘Now mother, do you think they copied my song?'”
Dottie and the Osborne Brothers were jointly announced as the newest members of the Grand Ole Opry at the same time in 1964.
Dottie was the only female to stage an appearance on the 1982 HBO’s “25 Years of Jerry Lee Lewis” special. She sang a duet with Jerry Lee, “Sweet Thang,” coupled with a solo of “You’re Not Easy to Forget.”
In an interview Dottie did in 1979, she said she enjoyed listening to recordings by other singers before going on stage. The singers whom she enjoyed the most were Ray Charles, the late gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, pop-country singer-composer Mickey Newbury, and the late country vocalist Patsy Cline. Dottie explained, “It helps me to get up for the show, listening to somebody I love, I do it before I go into a recording session, too. I listen to all those people for inspiration, I guess.”
One of Dottie’s most preferred crossover groups were the rock band, The Eagles. Dottie later revealed that she had invited the band members to her Nashville home when they played in the city the previous time. Dottie, however, expressed her disappointment at the fact that the country music community had mostly been ignorant of groups like the Eagles. “Their music is just as much country as the old time sound,” she emphasized.
Dottie had never met Cher prior to 1979, but both shared the same costume designer-Bob Mackie. During her month-long stint at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, Dottie took a break between shows to pay a quick dressing room visit backstage to Cher, where she was performing at Caesar’s Palace.
Les Reed and Barry Mason wrote a song that was recorded as a non-album single called “Childhood Places” by Dottie on May 4, 1966. Dottie had stated that she recorded the song to dedicate to her three boys, Mo, Kerry and Dale.
Throughout the length of her country music career, Dottie had won many awards and accolades. Dottie’s first prize came into sight for the first time when she earned one from the Rotary Club Carnival in 1950. Dottie sang “Jealous Heart,” and lacked the fortune of having a band by her side; in spite of all odds, she was announced as the “String band Contest Winner.” Years later, the plague was proudly on display and kept beside other prestigious awards in her collection, such as the GRAMMY and BMI awards.
Jim Reeves praised Dottie as one of the best female singers ever and as a great cook. It was believed that while doing demos at Saturday, shortly after her move to Nashville, Dottie first met Reeves. Tommy Hill, who was one of Reeves’ ex-band members, ran Starday for Don Piece in those days. Dottie owed a lot to Jim Reeves, for it was he who, under his own steam, helped Dottie acquire a contract from RCA. When Jim expressed praise for Dottie to Chet Atkins, who then signed her without even making her go through the traditional route, an audition. In addition to Jim, Pete Drake and Hank Cochran did all they could to make Chet aware of Dottie’s talents. That is why, Dottie remained obliged to all three of them for the entire span of her life.
Dottie sang as an anonymous background singer on Porter Wagoner’s song, “The Girl Who Didn’t Need Love,” which was recorded in 1969. She had auditioned with Connie Smith and Tammy Wynette for a regular spot on “The Porter Wagoner Show” after Norma Jean had left but Dolly Parton was the one to get the spot.
When at home, sometimes Dottie would like to have a glass of milk and take a spoonful of brown sugar and stir it up and drink it before going to bed.
Despite developing herself into an esteemed dignitary, Dottie’s childhood was the opposite. She chopped cotton and helped care for her nine brothers and sisters. The kids were reared in humble circumstances. As Dottie’s family was large, feeding the mouths of each and every one was prioritized over everything else. One of her chores was gathering in eggs every night before dark, which resulted in Dottie tramping around a chicken house dealing with recalcitrant setting hens. As the hens started coming out flapping their wings, Dottie and her younger sister Betty, would jump every time that happened and then laugh afterwards. Living on a farm always consisted of having many chores for Dottie and her siblings to do. They had to chop and bring wood out for heat. There was a cow to milk. They made their own soap out of hog grease and Lye. Dottie had recalled this using a churn to make butter, “We didn’t have electricity, so we churned by hand. We made butter that way and then we would drink the milk that was left because that was buttermilk.”
Dottie and her second husband Byron Metcalf celebrated their third anniversary with Byron gifting her with a fiddle. Armed with the determination of learning how to play the instrument, Dottie decided plans of taking lessons from Buddy Spicher for a year. Buddy visualised the days when Dottie requested him for lessons of playing the fiddle. Few days later it was found that the long length of Dottie’s nails was impeding her efforts. Once, Buddy asked Dottie in her house to shorten the length of her nails if she were to make her dream of playing the fiddle come true. As expected, neither did she ever trim her nails, nor did she get schooled in playing the fiddle. Michael Brokaw, Dottie’s manager, later recalled, “She had a bowling alley but her nails were three inches long.”
In 1967, Dottie participated in a Chet Atkins tribute anniversary song, featuring vocals of more than a dozen artists. It was cut at the RCA studios in Nashville, without Chet Atkins knowing a thing about it. The single, titled “Chet’s Tune,” rode its way to the position of #38 on the Billboard country chart.
In 1971, Dottie achieved, as a recognition of her work, yet another prestigious award what later seemingly influenced the Blanton incident. For recording a national commercial for Coca-Cola. The “Country Sunshine” would forever be celebrated as a grand hit not only for Coke, but also for Dottie. Following the immensely success of the commercial, in 1974, Dottie wrote as well as recorded the jingle song, “We Need a Ray of Blanton Sunshine,” for promoting Ray Blanton’s Governor Campaign. Lamar Alexander, Blanton’s opponent, assigned his defeat partly to Dottie’s jingle popularity. Dottie looked all set to sing the song at the inaugural ceremony of Gov. Blanton, but a hospital admission wasn’t letting her to participate the ceremony.
Dottie’s 1979 interaction with a disc jockey on KLAC, a 50,000-watt country music station in California thoroughly brought to light her emotional side. While discussing in length about her commitment and dedication to her regenerated career, the disc jockey unexpectedly unearthed an album that Dottie recorded in 1967, titled “Country Girl.” The album’s front was embellished with a photograph of Dottie’s daughter Shelly, whereas the back was decorated with an open letter to the child that Dottie had forgotten having written. Dottie was requested by the jockey to read aloud the letter on the air. After Dottie had finished reading her letter, she could not hold her emotions and cried.
The yellow taxi used for the “Country Sunshine” commercial in 1973 was bought by Dottie’s record label RCA Victor. Coke had also later contributed the commercial to the Library Congress.
Utilizing her protean skills and the valuable pop-singing experience, which she gathered from performing regularly on the TV show, “Landmark Jamboree,” she later made appearances with the Memphis Symphony and the Kansas City Symphony in a number of pop programs. Dottie remained proud of her pop performances to the extent to which she had been proud of her country music ones. Not all of Dottie’s all performances were not country music billing and showpieces of her versatility. An example, as Dottie had inner passion to work with orchestras, she then had opened the Memphis Symphony Orchestra’s season in 1973 where she performed for seven days with The Kansas City. She revealed her observation in this way, “We presented our usual show, with my band up front and the orchestras providing the backgrounds. It was a real challenge for a country singer like myself. But the rich overtones of an orchestra made the music sound so different. It was exciting.”
Dottie and Lionel Richie had an amiable relationship between them. At the “American Music Awards” in 1983, Kenny Rogers was honoured by several of his friends, including Dottie and Lionel Richie, where he was presented a special Award of Merit. They wanted Lionel’s appearance to come as a surprise. So Lionel hid himself at Dottie’s house on that day. It did not take too long for the establishment of a rapport between Dottie and Lionel. In a 1983 interview, Dottie disclosed that she was so much engrossed in writing new songs with Lionel one night that she felt giddy on the very next morning. Speaking of her experience, Dottie stated, “We didn’t actually write anything. Mostly, we just got to know each other, and discover how we both work. But I think we will get together again and, eventually, I hope it leads to something creative. I admire Lionel tremendously. He says he admires me and we’ve been talking about doing this for a long time now.” In a comparatively recent interview to the media [2011], Lionel admitted to growing up with Grand Ole Opry, Dottie West, Conway Twitty, and Buck Owens.
Steve Wariner has gained the inspiration of the public on countless occasions for being a discovery of Dottie and playing in her band. However, Steve shared a memorable moment with Dottie at RCA studio on August 7, 1973 where he had recorded a duet with Dottie. The combined efforts of Dottie and an 18-year-old Steve gave rise to an unreleased duet, which was entitled, “You’re Too Much for My Two Arms to Hold,” written by Dottie and Red Lane.
Dottie’s affiliation with the Coca-Cola Company commenced in 1972, and was extended till 1979. Dottie was the official “Sunshine Girl for Coca-Cola” for 7 consecutive years. She acted as a goodwill ambassadress for Coke in her travels around the country, promoted Coke in all her performances and public engagements, performed at functions by Coke and showed up at special events in which Coca-Cola Bottlers or the company directly or indirectly had a substantial involvement. Here again, she proved her pioneering qualities; Dottie was the first face in the country music to do a commercial for a company of national stature, such as Coca-Cola. The “Country Sunshine” commercial also turned her into a recipient of the Clio Award, the first honour ever given to a country artist. Dottie gave more emphasis when she received the award what was presented by the advertisers for the best commercial of that year. And she considered it was a very special award for her.
History again honoured Dottie, when she and Shelly became the first mother-and-daughter pairing to be nominated for a Grammy as competitors in the same category: “Duo-group Vocal Country Performance.” Dottie was nominated for her duet single with Kenny Rogers, “What Are We Doin’ In Love,” which marked her final Grammy nomination. Dottie’s career tally was illuminated by an accumulation of 16 Grammys in total. It all started in 1964 when she achieved her first Grammy nomination, and win.
As well as the commercials for Coke, Dottie also did commercials for Purina Dog Chow, Pizza Hut and Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. Plus she endorsed the Wrangler Jean Co product and did a promotion and advertising campaign for them in 1975.
Dottie did not shy away from giving female writers timely breaks. She was one of the first in Nashville to record songs by Jessi Colter, Sandy Mason, Toni Wine and Jeannie Seely. [Dottie’s recording of “Here Come the Flowers,” was produced by Chips Moman for RCA in 1976; the song was co-written by him and his wife Toni Wine.] Dottie was the first to give Jessi Colter a break by recording her song “No Sign of Living,” which became a modest hit for her and appeared on her “Dottie West Sings” album in 1965. Ironically, Dottie gave another songwriter a break, when she recorded, “It Just Takes Practice to Forget,” written by Jeannie Seely for the same album. Dottie and Jeannie became two lifelong friends soon after meeting with one another at the Palomino Club in 1963. Jeannie’s move to Nashville had a great deal to do with Dottie, because it was she who insisted her for the same. Dottie was the first to record the song “I Heard Our Song,” which was written by Sandy Mason for her “Makin’ Memories” LP in 1969. Mason’s songs would later be recorded by Crystal Gayle, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, but Dottie was the first.
Throughout the course of her life, Dottie had flawlessly redefined success by accomplishing a sizable proportion of her valued ambitions. She had a dream to have her own television series what was unfulfilled in her whole life, though she had network TV specials, which was to be the hostess of very own television show. Dottie publicly admitted this longing of hers in an interview for the “Country Song Roundup” magazine in the spring of 1966. In the interview, she recalled that such a show would give an opportunity to bring a pitiful status of women in the country music circuit. Domination of male supremacy in the industry and the absence of females in the form of country music hostesses, she wanted to make a change to this fact. Dottie was looking for a new-age country music show, which would resemble to the “Patti Page” show. “Beautiful costumes and long gowns. It would be a beautiful show and present country music in sort of an up-town formula way, still using the same songs,” Dottie declared. In 1976, Dottie once again went public about her desire of having her own network television in the future. Speaking to Janis Haynes of the “Abilene Reporter,” she expressed her plans of naming it, “Country Sunshine,” but simultaneously remarked, “It will be very, very expensive to do.” Touching on the probable composition of the show, Dottie affirmed that it would be centred around her customized natural country music filmed on-location with a barefooted girl doing things true to her nature, such as running through the grass, driving down country road, picking a flower, etc.
Dottie had seen five of her singles reach #1 on the Billboard charts. Her two solo #1 hits were “A Lesson In Leavin'” and “Are You Happy Baby,” and her other three #1 hits, “Every Time Two Fools Collide,” “All I Ever Need Is You” and “What Are We Doin’ In Love” were duets with Kenny Rogers. Dottie had forty-five songs which had reached the top #40, twenty-six of her songs were in the top #20, and fifteen had been in the top #10. Dottie’s most successful albums were with Kenny Rogers. And her most successful solo albums were her 1966 release of “Suffer Time” which reached #5 position on Billboard. Her next was “Special Delivery” in 1979 which reached #12, and her most successful album of the eighties was her “Wild West” LP which was released in 1980 and reached #5, plus crossed over into Billboard’s pop chart at #126.
The movie, “Big Dreams & Broken Hearts -The Dottie West Story” was tentatively titled “Paper Mansions.” Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Chet Atkins, Loretta Lynn, Kenny Rogers and Larry Gatlin participated either as narrators or appeared in small roles in the movie. But, Dolly Parton was off the cast initially; it was Tammy Wynette who was supposed to be in the place of Dolly. However, due to some unknown reason, Dolly came in for Tammy.
