On March 13, 1926, Maybelle Addington (b. 1909) married Ezra J. Carter.

They had three daughters, Helen, Valerie June (better known as June Carter Cash), and Anita.

The Carter Family (formed by A.P Carter, Maybelle’s brother inlaw) made their first recordings for Ralph Peer on the Victor label in 1927, in Bristol, Tennessee.  During the next 17 years they recorded some 300 old-time ballads, traditional tunes, country songs, and Gospel hymns, all representative of America's southeastern folklore and heritage.

The original Family consisted of Mother Maybelle Addington Carter, who played guitar and sang harmony; Sara Dougherty, who played autoharp and sang alto lead; and Sara’s husband, Alvin Pleasant (A.P.) Carter, who played fiddle and sang bass.  

They operated out of their homes in the Clinch Mountain area of Virginia until 1938, when they moved to Texas for three years, and then to North Carolina. 

They did their last radio show together in 1942, after which Maybelle Carter, who has been called the "Queen of Country Music," continued the tradition and her career with her three daughters, Anita, Helen, and June who  married Johnny Cash. Mother Maybelle later performed with her son in-law Johnny Cash.  

The Carter Family split up in 1943, - Maybelle and her three daughters -- June, Helen and Anita -- formed Mother Maybelle and the Carter Singers, performing such Carter Family standards as ''Wildwood Flower,'' ''Will the Circle Be Unbroken & many others. After their break-up their lead guitarist was a very young Chet Atkins.

The Original Carter Familybecame the first group inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in November 1970

H. G. Warren – once stated:   Perhaps the most remarkable of Maybelle's many talents was her skill as a guitarist. She revolutionized the instrument's role by developing a style in which she played melody lines on the bass strings with her thumb while rhythmically strumming with her fingers. Her innovative technique, to this day known as the Carter Scratch, influenced the guitar's shift from rhythm to lead instrument.

Regarding Mother Maybelle – Queen of Country Music

In 1993, her image appeared on a U.S. postage stamp honoring the Carter Family

In 2001 she was initiated into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor

She would rank #8 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women of Country Music in 2002.

She was the subject of her granddaughter Carlene Carter's 1993 song "Me and the Wildwood Rose"

In 2010, Lipscomb University in Nashville named the stage in Collins Alumni Auditorium after her

The well loved and respected Mother Maybelle Carter died in 1978.

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Hank Williams 

Was born Hiram King Williams on September 17, 1923. Georgiana, Alabama., U.S

Like many families of the era, Williams was born into poverty. His father abandoned the family when Williams was a young child, spending many years at veterans' hospitals for various ailments. It therefore became the responsibility of his strong-willed mother to raise Williams and the other children.

Williams found inspiration in black music. At the age of 8, he learned to play the guitar in Greenville, Alabama, from a street performer named Rufe Payne, known as Tee-Tot.   It’s believed that Williams would be out shining shoes and selling newspapers  - his earning would be given to the street performer who in return taught the young Williams to play guitar.   Another inspirartion to music were the Cater Family.

He formed his first band, Hank Williams and his Drifting Cowboys, at age 14.   Too sickly and skinny for the hard labor jobs of his peers, Williams honed his guitar and singing skills. In 1942, he managed to get his own weekly 15-minute show on Montgomery radio station WSFA.

In 1946, Williams earned a writer's contract after auditioning for Acuff-Rose publishing. He recorded his first session in December 1946, and the single "Calling You" was released in January 1947. The success of that record led to a one-year recording contract with MGM records in March 1947. His first MGM single, "Move It On Over," sold 108,000 copies in less than a year

He charted eleven number one songs between 1948 and 1953, though unable to read or write music to any significant degree. His hits included "Your Cheatin' Heart, "Hey Good Lookin' and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

On New Year's Eve, 1952, he was riding in the back seat of his chauffeured Cadillac to a show in Ohio. Williams was heavily medicated and drunk when he died of an alcohol-induced heart attack sometime during the night in Oak Hill, West Virginia. On January 1, 1953, Williams was pronounced dead. He was 29 years old.

Williams' funeral in Montgomery, Alabama, drew more than 20,000 mourners from all over the country. Country stars Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff, Red Foley, Carl Smith, and Webb Pierce sang in memory of their lost friend.

The Montgomery Advertiser reported (Newspaper) "They came from everywhere, dressed in their Sunday best, babies in their arms, hobbling on crutches and canes, Negroes, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, small children, and wrinkled  faced old men and women. Some brought their lunch.

He certainly captured the Nation and World with his song writing ability.  "The entire range of human emotions is within his recordings: love, hate, envy, joy, guilt, despair, remorse, playfulness, sorrow, and more.