Can you tell me something about singer Charline Arthur? We never heard of her until recently.
—Irene R., Oklahoma
Honky-tonk star Charline Arthur was born in Henrietta, Texas, in 1929. She wrote her first song, I've Got the Boogie Blues, by the age of 12 and soon was appearing on a Texas radio show. She left home at 15 to tour with a traveling medicine show, meeting and marrying Jack Arthur in 1948. It was in Kermit, Texas, that Arthur met up with Elvis Presley's manager, Col. Tom Parker, who helped Arthur sign with RCA in 1953. Arthur was a brassy trailblazer and took credit for being the first female country singer to wear pants on stage. Her records never became hits, and by 1960 she was back to touring clubs. Some of her songs include That Look and I Was Wrong. She achieved a new level of recognition when her RCA songs were re-released on Germany's Bear Family Records in 1986. Arthur died in Idaho in 1987.
