Judy Lynn Kelly (born Judy Lynn Voiten; April 16, 1936 – May 26, 2010), better known by her stage name Judy Lynn, was an American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer and

beauty queen A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

who was crowned

Miss Idaho The Miss Idaho scholarship program is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Idaho in the Miss America pageant. The current titleholder receives a $4,000 cash scholarship to any accredited institution of her choice. Sh ...

in 1955.

Life and career

Lynn was born in

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown ar ...

, United States. As a teenager she joined a nationwide tour of Grand Ole Opry performers. She was hired to fill in for

Jean Shepard Ollie Imogene "Jean" Shepard (November 21, 1933 – September 25, 2016) was an American honky-tonk singer-songwriter who pioneered for women in country music. Shepard released a total of 73 singles to the Hot Country Songs chart, one of which ...

, who had become ill during the tour. She soon married her manager and for over 20 years her show was a popular staple piece of the Las Vegas strip, featuring her brand of country music, appearing in dazzling Nudie costumes. In 1951, Lynn starred in the Broadway musical '' Top Banana'' and its film adaptation, alongside comedic actor

Phil Silvers Phil Silvers (born Phillip Silver; May 11, 1911 – November 1, 1985) was an American entertainer and comedic actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah". His career as a professional entertainer spanned nearly sixty years. Silvers achieved major popu ...

who won a Tony Award for his performance.

Death

Lynn retired from the music business in 1980 to become a Christian minister. She died on May 26, 2010, after suffering

congestive heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, ...

at her home in Jeffersonville, Indiana.Country Singer Judy Lynn Dies At 74

Discography

Albums

Singles

*^A "Married to a Memory" also peaked at number 4 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart and number 42 on the Canadian ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Country Tracks chart. It also charted at #18 on the Billboard AC charts.

References

1936 births 2010 deaths American women country singers American country singer-songwriters Miss America 1950s delegates Musicians from Boise, Idaho People from Jeffersonville, Indiana Country musicians from Indiana 20th-century American people 21st-century American women Singer-songwriters from Indiana Singer-songwriters from Idaho {{US-pageant-bio-stub