Patsy Montana

Patsy Montana came into this life as the only girl in the Blevins family near Hot Springs, Arkansas. She was named Ruby and little did her parents and brothers know how fitting this name would become as she truly has become a "jewel" over the years.

As she was growing up she learned to play the guitar on her own and took some violin lessons. Her musical ability was shown to the extent that she got her first musical employment when she was only fourteen. After two years of honing her musical talents Ruby added an "e" to the end of her first name and headed for the bright lights of Hollywood. She had a great appreciation for cowboy and western music and got a job on KMTR Hollywood as "Rubye Blevins, the Yodeling Cowgirl from San Antone."

While there she became involved with a group of entertainers that Stuart Hamblen put together for a regular radio show on KMIC Inglewood. Two other girls were members of the group and one of them was named Ruthy. Hamblen thought radio listeners might have trouble distinguishing between Rubye and Ruthy so Rubye changed her name to Patsy and later added Montana. The three girls were billed as the Montana Cowgirls. In 1933 Patsy went home to Arkansas for a visit and found that two of her brothers were planning to enter what they hoped was "the world's biggest watermelon" in the Chicago World's Fair. Patsy went to Chicago with them and while there heard that the Kentucky Ramblers of the WLS National Barn Dance were looking for a female singer. She made the necessary contacts and was hired.

Inasmuch as she had developed a western image and because of the popularity of cowboy songs the group was renamed the Prairie Ramblers. The first song that Patsy sang on WLS was Montana Plains which Patsy had adapted from Stuart Hamblen's Texas Plains by changing the title and a few words. Stuart was not happy with this change and Patsy decided to write her own theme song in a similar structure and rhythm. During the week between National Barn Dance broadcasts Patsy was a part of a road show called the "Roundup of WLS Radio Stars."

While with the touring group she met, fell in love with and married Paul Rose who managed another act in the group. In 1934 during performances in Illinois, Rose was away visiting his sick mother in Knoxville, Tennessee. In her loneliness, during his absence, one evening in her hotel room she wrote the song that was to become her "trademark." She gave it the title "Want To Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart" that had been suggested earlier by music promoter, J. L. Frank. She introduced it on the National Barn Dance and the rest is history. Although it was written in 1934 it was not published until 1935 and it has been recorded by many artists over the years. None, however, have measured up to Patsy's recording which was the first million selling record by a female artist.