Donna Jean Hilley (née Whitten; June 30, 1940 – June 20, 2012) was an American music publishing executive who was CEO of

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sony Music Publishing LLC (formerly Sony/ATV Music Publishing) is an American music publisher. Responsible for publishing the largest quantity of music, with over five million songs owned or administered as of end March 2021, it is part of Sony ...

from 1994 to her retirement in 2005. Originally from

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

, Hilley began her career at

WKDA WKDA (900 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Big Band format. Licensed to Lebanon, Tennessee, United States, the station serves the Nashville area. The station is owned by Wilson County Broadcasting, Inc. History The WKDA callsign was us ...

in Nashville and went on to work in

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

publishing. A graduate of Jones Valley High School in Birmingham, Hilley was inducted into the

Alabama Music Hall of Fame The Alabama Music Hall of Fame, first conceived by the Muscle Shoals Music Association in the early 1980s, was created by the Alabama Music Hall of Fame Board, which then oversaw construction of a facility after a statewide referendum in 1987 ...

in 1999. She had been married to her high school sweetheart from Birmingham for over 40 years.

Early life

Hilley was born in

Montevallo, Alabama Montevallo is a city in Shelby County, Alabama, United States. A college town, it is the home of the University of Montevallo, a public liberal arts university with approximately 3,000 students. As of the 2020 census, the population of the ci ...

. Her father, John Truman Whitten, was a lineman for the

Alabama Power Company Alabama Power Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a company in the southern United States that provides electricity service to 1.4 million customers in the southern two-thirds of Alabama. It also operates appliance stores. It is one ...

. Her mother, Janie Mae Whitten (née Sizemore) was a stay at home mom when Donna was born at home after a long difficult labor (many births occurred at home in the rural South in those days). Her parents came from very poor psychosocial situation, and Donna's parents had moved up the socioeconomic ladder only a bit. Her brother, Jimmy Whitten, was born 5 years later, and a sister Diane Whitten, was born 14 years later. By this time the family had moved to Birmingham for her dad's job. Hilley married her high school boyfriend and moved to

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

(he was at Vanderbilt) immediately after high school. Though armed with only a high school degree and no experience, she began working at a radio station in Nashville. Two young girls, Vickie and Debbie, were born soon after. The couple was quite poor. With a husband in school and Hilley at a low paying but fun job, the money was scarce.

Career

Hilley followed one of the disc jockeys from WKDA into his advertising firm, Bill Hudson and Associates. She moved up the hierarchy in that position. Several years later her previous boss at the radio station had also been running a music publishing company, Tree. When Mr Stapp ( owner of Tree ) called Hilley to say his secretary had taken ill and had stated only one person could do her job, and that person was Donna Hilley, Donna moved over to Tree Publishing. The position was "executive assistant" to Jack Stapp. Hilley worked her way up to president and CEO later of Tree Publishing.

Personal life

Hilley's grandson,

Mitchell Tenpenny James Mitchell Tenpenny III (born August 17, 1989) is an American country pop singer and songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee. He has released three studio albums and five extended plays through Riser House Records, with the first being '' Tellin ...

, is a country music singer-songwriter. Hilley often fibbed about her age and ''

The Tennessean ''The Tennessean'' (known until 1972 as ''The Nashville Tennessean'') is a daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee. Its circulation area covers 39 counties in Middle Tennessee and eight counties in southern Kentucky. It is owned by Gannett, w ...

'' reported that she was 65 when she died, although she was actually about to turn 72.

References

1940 births 2012 deaths American music industry executives Businesspeople from Birmingham, Alabama People from Nashville, Tennessee American women chief executives 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen 21st-century American women {{US-CEO-stub