Patsy Montana, the Cowboy’s Sweetheart with a Heart of her Own

Patsy Montana in the early 1930s.

In 1935, when country music was in its infancy, the novelty of the music and its artists had just begun to spread throughout the country, thanks to radio and the new developing recording technology.  The earthy, often light-hearted and sincere songs provided a soothing grace from the harsh realities during the era marked by the Great Depression. Artists like the Carter Family, Gene Autry, and Jimmie Rodgers captivated millions of fans. For young troubadours there was a race to try and replace the phenomenal, singing brakeman—Rodgers—and to capture his nationwide success.

When young 25-year-old Rubye Rose Blevins burst on the national music scene as Patsy Montana, the audiences were taken by surprise to see this young Arkansas girl in her cowgirl outfit, picking and yodeling her way through “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart” with such ease, confidence, and unbridled joy, it became a national sensation. She could arguably out-yodel best of them and leave her male competitors in her countryside dust.

It could have been some haunted bit of western music irony that this 25-year-old could even dream of picking up the Singing Brakeman’s mantle right in front of the likes of Gene Autry and Jimmie Davis. At a time when so many lives had been defined by poverty, hearing this young lady sing of the freedom and pleasure of cowboy loving and living, captured the nation’s imagination like few others of the time.

With fiddles flying, guitars strumming, and a high, lonesome youthful yodel Patsy Montna rode her way into being a country music legend as she became the first female country singer to sell a million records. She was also among the first women in the genre to wear the colorful cowgirl attire, similar to her male compadres without apology. This would later be a common practice with the female country singers that followed in her footsteps, like Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, and Patsy Cline. They were encouraged and emboldened to embrace their place as equals to the males in mainstream country music thanks to Patsy Montana

Patsy was well prepared to take on the male-dominated country music of the day. She was born in Arkansas in 1908 to a family as the eleventh child of ten brothers. When she turned 17 in 1925, she threw fortune to the wind and moved to Southern California. She studied violin at the University of the West, known today as UCLA. It was there that she gained a reputation for her singing and fiddle and guitar playing. In 1931 she was good enough to win in a talent show singing Jimmie Rodgers songs, which resulted in a job singing and playing on a Los Angeles radio stion. She became a local celebrity as Rubye Blevins, the Yodeling Cowgirl from San Antone. She then joined the Montana Cowgirls featured on KMIC radio with the support of the show’s stars, songwriter Stuart Hamblin and rodeo-cowboy star Montie Montana. It was during this time she adopted professional name as Patsy Montana, thanks to Montie.

The Montana Cowgirls were short lived and in 1932, Patsy returned to Arkansas where local radio exposure in Shreveport, Louisiana found her discovered by none other than the future governor and then recording star, Jimmie Davis (“You Are My Sunshine”). After playing and singing on Davis records, she began to record her own songs.

Then, in 1933, she joined two of her brothers at an exposition fair in Chicago. This included a successful audition as a vocalist for the popular country act, the Kentucky Ramblers, that later became known as the Prairie Ramblers. They were a swing, string band that heavily influenced Patsy Montana’s songwriting and performance style. Her time with them found her poised to become a ‘cowboy’s sweetheart.’

In 1934, one of the songs Patsy sang was “Montana Plains,” which was derived from a song called “Texas Plains.” She reworked, did some rearranging, and came up with her own apt theme for the times, “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart.” She found her way into the studio in 1935 with the Prairie Ramblers and the rest is history.

Her discography throughout the two decades includes a series of songs that helped define what today has been referred to as Countrypolitan music and dovetailed nicely with Bob Willis, Roy Rogers, and Sons of the Pioneers. Her recordings of familiar songs like “Deep in the Heart of Texas” and “I Ride an Old Paint” are given spirited swing interpretations that defy the traditional versions. But, it was her “Sweetheart of the Wild Saddle” and “He’s a Wild and Reckless Cowboy” that captured the heart of her originality and the strength of her legacy. She was also ahead of her time in that many of her most famous songs, like “Rodeo Sweetheart” and “Back on Montana Plains,” were written by her. She became one of the earliest examples of a female artist as a songwriter, which would later include Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn.

However, the question that haunts any country music enthusiast is why did she not attain icon status. Why isn’t this Patsy as familiar to the public as the talented and tragic Miss Cline? She certainly influenced and inspired her. She also influenced many of the iconic country stars that would follow her.

The answer may be found as a simple case of geography. She became a permanent fixture throughout the 1940s and ’50s on NBC and ABC radio broadcast of National Barn Dance in Chicago. There, she would perform alongside Gene Autry, Pat Buttram, Red Foley, the Golden Girls of the West, the Williams Brothers (with future star, Andy), and comedian George Gobel. The show was originally broadcast at WLS and another version was broadcast in the South on WSM. That version soon became the Grand Ole Opry. But, Patsy Montana stayed in the western skies. She met her husband, Paul E. Rose, who was stage manager in Chicago for Gene Autry in the 1930s.

By the 1950s, Patsy retired for a while to be closer to her family. But her sights were always west of Nashville. The result was that no offer ever came for her to join the Grand Ole Opry, and her music career also remained in the West. She returned to her music career in the ’60s, but her career would never regain the kind of traction as it had in 1935.

By the 1980s, Patsy Montana had been on the road, doing sporadic recordings for decades. She was re-born in the Americana-roots music movement and was discovered by a legion of fans of her music and the veteran stars who she influenced. Her classic song, “I Wanna Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart” was recorded by Lynn Anderson, Suzie Boguss, Nickel Creek, Dixie Chicks, and Leanne Rimes among many others.

A revealing and touching performance can be viewed when she appeared on The David Letterman Show, singing her first hit. As she sings and breaks into a yodel, she was as good as ever. It’s clear from that performance that the joy of the music she found when she was in her 20s stayed with her. She passed away not long after that broadcast, quietly, in Southern California.

Fortunately, Patsy Montana received the honors she deserved when, in 1996, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. It took a lifetime, but Nashville finally discovered Patsy Montana. The final irony is her induction into the Cowgirls Hall of Fame in 1987. It was an award she could easily have invented and defined. Her career began as a singing cowgirl in the company of singing cowboys. Only she single-handedly took on the male-centered music of her day and went to number one with a sweetheart of a song.