32 Facts About Skeeter Davis

Skeeter Davis started out as part of the Davis Sisters as a teenager in the late 1940s, eventually recording for RCA Victor.

When Skeeter Davis was a toddler, her great-uncle was convicted of murdering her maternal grandfather in Indiana.

Skeeter Davis was raised a Protestant, attending Disciples of Christ churches.

When Skeeter Davis was in seventh grade, her father relocated to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for work.

Skeeter Davis became fascinated by the sisters, and for a time considered becoming a nun.

Betty Jack was killed in the collision, while Skeeter Davis sustained serious head injuries.

Newspaper bulletins at the time erroneously reported that both the Skeeter Davis Sisters had been pronounced dead at Our Lady of Sorrow Hospital in Cincinnati.

Once Skeeter recovered, Ollie could "hardly wait for her chance to re-create the Davis Sisters", suggesting that Betty Jack's younger sister, Georgia, take her place in the singing duo.

Skeeter Davis reluctantly agreed, and six months after the accident she resumed singing in the duo with Georgia Skeeter Davis.

In 1955, the Skeeter Davis Sisters were booked for a regional tour alongside Hank Snow, The Carter Sisters, and Elvis Presley.

Skeeter Davis resumed performing as a solo act, touring with Ernest Tubb, and co-wrote and recorded the song "Set Him Free" for RCA, produced by Chet Atkins.

In 1963, Skeeter Davis achieved her biggest success with country pop crossover hit "The End of the World".

Skeeter Davis achieved one other country-pop hit with the Gerry Goffin and Carole King-penned "I Can't Stay Mad at You", which peaked at number seven on the pop charts and number two on the Easy Listening chart in 1963.

Skeeter Davis's success continued with "I'm Saving My Love" and 1964's "Gonna Get Along Without You Now", an updated cover of a 1956 hit by Patience and Prudence.

In 1967, Skeeter Davis was back in the top 10 with "What Does It Take ".

Skeeter Davis received her fourth Grammy nomination for 1967's "What Does It Take".

Skeeter Davis's recording of the anti-war song "One Tin Soldier", released in 1972, earned her an appearance on The Midnight Special.

In 1970, Skeeter Davis had another top-10 hit with "I'm a Lover " and another duet with Bobby Bare with "Your Husband, My Wife".

Skeeter Davis had the first and only controversy of her career when, during a 1973 Grand Ole Opry performance, she dedicated a gospel song to a group of young church workers whom she noted in her introduction had been arrested for evangelizing at a local mall.

Skeeter Davis was reinstated at the Opry more than a year later.

Skeeter Davis returned to the recording studio in 1976 with a brief stint on Mercury Records, which produced two single releases, including her last song to make the national charts, 1976's "I Love Us".

Skeeter Davis recorded the album Skeeter Davis Sings, They Play with her third husband, bassist Joey Spampinato and his band, NRBQ.

In 1956, Skeeter Davis met Kenneth DePew, a railroad worker and acquaintance of Georgia.

In 1964, after four years of marriage, Skeeter Davis divorced Emery after finding he had been unfaithful to her and conceived a child with another woman.

Skeeter Davis became a vegetarian in 1974, and remained so for the rest of her life.

Skeeter Davis chose to abstain from eating meat after performing at a benefit concert in Kenya, where the concert organizers had killed and roasted a goat for the artists' banquet.

Skeeter Davis partly attributed her vegetarianism to her Christianity, as she felt killing animals for consumption was incongruent with her religious beliefs.

Skeeter Davis underwent a mastectomy of her right breast to treat the cancer and was in remission for several years before having a recurrence in 1996.

In 2001, Skeeter Davis became incapacitated by her breast cancer, which had metastasized.

Skeeter Davis died of breast cancer in a Nashville, Tennessee, hospice on September 19,2004, aged 72.

Skeeter Davis is interred at Williams Memorial Gardens in Franklin, Tennessee.

Skeeter Davis penned nearly 70 songs over the course of her career, and earned two BMI awards: for "Set Him Free" and "My Last Date With You", the latter recorded by Ann-Margret, Pat Boone, Kay Starr, Joni James, and several others, in addition to Skeeter Davis' original hit version.