Sara Elizabeth Carter (née Dougherty, later Bayes; July 21, 1898 – January 8, 1979) was an American

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 ...

musician, singer, and songwriter. Remembered mostly for her deep, distinctive, mature singing voice, she was the lead singer on most of the recordings of the historic Carter Family act in the 1920s and 1930s. In her earliest recordings her voice was pitched very high.

Life and career

Born in Copper Creek, Virginia, the daughter of William Sevier Dougherty and Nancy Elizabeth Kilgore, at age 16 she married A. P. Carter on June 18, 1915; they divorced in 1936. They had three children: Gladys (Mrs. Millard), Janette (Mrs. Jett), and Joe. In 1927, she and A. P. began performing as the Carter Family, perhaps the first commercial rural country music group. They were joined by her cousin, Maybelle, who was married to A. P.'s brother, Ezra Carter. Later, Sara married Coy Bayes, A. P.'s first cousin, and moved to California in 1943, and the original group disbanded. In the late 1940s, Maybelle began performing with her daughters Helen,

June June is the sixth and current month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars—the latter the most widely used calendar in the world. Its length is 30 days. June succeeds May and precedes July. This month marks the start of su ...

, and Anita as The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle (the act was renamed The Carter Family during the 1960s). On Carter Family recordings, Sara is credited as author of the songs "Fifty Miles of Elbow Room" and "Keep on the Firing Line"; in truth she discovered these

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songs when they were being sung at a Seventh-day Adventist church she visited. RCA gave her songwriter credit, as it did A.P. Carter on his public domain discoveries. The Carter Family recordings of these tunes brought the songs worldwide fame. Sara wrote or co-wrote several other songs, including "My Foothills Home", "The Dying Soldier", "Lonesome Pine Special", "Farther On", and "Railroading on the Great Divide". Sara reunited with Maybelle in 1966 for a Columbia Records album titled "An Historic Reunion," which was later re-issued on Bear Family Records, with additional songs, as "Sara and Maybelle Carter." They performed together during the folk music craze of the 1960s at the Newport Folk Festival. The duo were featured as guests in a late 1960s episode of the Wilburn Brothers television show, singing "Little Moses" and "As the Band Played Dixie". Following this period, Sara retired to California, although she and Maybelle remained close for the rest of their lives and Sara and Coy journeyed yearly from California to Virginia by car, pulling a travel trailer. In the early 1970s, Sara and Maybelle reunited to appear on

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. ...

's network television show and to perform together at the first annual A.P. Carter Memorial Festival in Hiltons, Virginia.

Family tree

Legacy

Carter was inducted as part of the Original Carter Family in the

Country Music Hall of Fame The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, is one of the world's largest museums and research centers dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of American vernacular music. Chartered in 1964, the museum has amass ...

in 1970, along with

Bill Monroe William Smith Monroe ( ; September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the " Father of Bluegrass". The genre takes its n ...

. In 1993, her image appeared on a U.S. postage stamp honoring the Carter Family. In 2001 she was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor. On her 2008 album '' All I Intended to Be'',

Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, bandleader, and activist. She is considered one of the leading music artists behind the country rock genre in the 1970s and the Americana (music), Americana genre ...

includes the song "How She Could Sing the Wildwood Flower", co-written with Kate and Anna McGarrigle about the relationship between Sara and A.P., inspired by a documentary that the three of them saw on television.

Death

Sara Carter died in Lodi, California, aged 80, and is interred in the Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church graveyard in Hiltons, Virginia. The A. P. and Sara Carter House, A. P. Carter Homeplace, A. P. Carter Store, Maybelle and Ezra Carter House, and Mt. Vernon Methodist Church are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as components of the Carter Family Thematic Resource., pdfhost.focus.nps.gov (PDF); accessed November 14, 2015.

References

Sources

* Wolfe, Charles (1998). "The Carter Family". In ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music''. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 84–5, 617.

External links

Sara Carter recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings. {{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Sara 1898 births 1979 deaths People from Russell County, Virginia Country musicians from Virginia American women country singers American country singer-songwriters American autoharp players 20th-century American singer-songwriters Cash–Carter family American United Methodists The Carter Family members 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers 20th-century Methodists Singer-songwriters from Virginia