Anita Carter

Biography

Ina Anita Carter (March 31, 1933 – July 29, 1999) was an American singer who played upright bass, guitar, and autoharp. She performed with her sisters, Helen and June, and her mother, Maybelle, initially under the name The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle. Carter had three top 10 hits as well as other charting singles. She was the first to record the songs "Blue Boy" and "Ring of Fire×Ring of Fire1989 · Album · CompilationSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 26 tracks1(Love’s) Ring of Fire2:012Fair and Tender Ladies3:003Satan’s Child3:024Fly Pretty Swallow2:245As the Swallow Goes2:536All My Trials2:567Voice of the Bayou3:418Sour Grapes3:199Johnny I Hardly Knew You4:1710My Love2:2211A Few Short Years Ago2:5612The Kentuckian Song2:3513Brian2:2414Running Back2:0215Take Me Home2:5516No, My Love, No3:0317Farewell3:1818This Life I’m Living2:2319My Love Loves Me2:1120John, John, John2:3221John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man2:1922I Never Will Marry3:3323In the Highways2:5624Bury Me Beneath the Willow2:1625Beautiful Isle O’er the Sea2:2226The Wildwood Flower2:29". Carter was also a songwriter, most notably co-writing the Johnny Cash hit "Rosanna's Going Wild."
Carter recorded for a number of labels, both as a solo artist and with her family, including RCA Victor, Cadence, Columbia, Audiograph, United Artists, Liberty and Capitol.

Biography

Anita was the third daughter of Ezra and Maybelle Carter. Born in Maces Spring, Virginia, she scored two top 10 hits in 1951 with "Down the Trail of Achin' Hearts" and "Bluebird Island," both duets with Hank Snow. In 1962, she recorded "Love's Ring of Fire," written by her sister June and Merle Kilgore. After the song failed to make the charts, Johnny Cash recorded it as "Ring of Fire×Ring of Fire1989 · Album · CompilationSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 26 tracks1(Love’s) Ring of Fire2:012Fair and Tender Ladies3:003Satan’s Child3:024Fly Pretty Swallow2:245As the Swallow Goes2:536All My Trials2:567Voice of the Bayou3:418Sour Grapes3:199Johnny I Hardly Knew You4:1710My Love2:2211A Few Short Years Ago2:5612The Kentuckian Song2:3513Brian2:2414Running Back2:0215Take Me Home2:5516No, My Love, No3:0317Farewell3:1818This Life I’m Living2:2319My Love Loves Me2:1120John, John, John2:3221John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man2:1922I Never Will Marry3:3323In the Highways2:5624Bury Me Beneath the Willow2:1625Beautiful Isle O’er the Sea2:2226The Wildwood Flower2:29" in March 1963 with the horns and the Carter Sisters (along with Mother Maybelle). This version became a hit for Cash.
She reached the top 10 again in 1968 with "I Got You," a duet with Waylon Jennings. Carter also reached the top 50 with hits like "I'm Gonna Leave You" in 1966 and "Tulsa County" in 1971.
On March 26, 1952, she appeared on The Kate Smith Evening Hour with her family band The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle as the first women to represent hillbilly/country music and Music City Nashville on national television. On April 23, she returned to the program, where she performed a duet with Hank Williams, on his song "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)". Then on May 21, she became the first female star of the Grand Ole Opry to sing a solo on The Kate Smith Evening Hour when she sang "Just When I Needed You".

Marriages

Carter married fiddler Dale Potter in 1950 (marriage was annulled shortly thereafter), session musician Don Davis in 1953 (divorced and then remarried), and Bob Wootton (lead guitarist for Johnny Cash's band The Tennessee Three) in 1974 (divorced). She had two children.

Death

Carter suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for many years, and the drugs used to treat it severely damaged her pancreas, kidneys, and liver. She died on July 29, 1999 at the age of 66, a year after eldest sister Helen and four years before middle sister June. She was under hospice care at the home of Johnny and June Carter Cash in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Her interment was in Hendersonville Memory Gardens in Hendersonville, Tennessee.