Skeeter Davis
Skeeter Davis (born Mary Frances Penick; December 30, 1931 – September 19, 2004) was an American country music singer and songwriter who sang crossover pop music songs including 1962's "The End of the World". She started out as part of the Davis Sisters as a teenager in the late 1940s, eventually landing on RCA Victor. In the late 1950s, she became a solo star.
Skeeter Davis
Mary Frances Penick
December 30, 1931
Glencoe, Kentucky, U.S.
September 19, 2004 (aged 72)
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
- Singer
- songwriter
- Vocals
- guitar
1947–2002
- RCA Victor
- Mercury
- 51 West
- Tudor
- Red Rooster
- Atlantic
One of the first women to achieve major stardom in the country music field as a solo vocalist, she was an acknowledged influence on Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton and was hailed as an "extraordinary country/pop singer" by The New York Times music critic Robert Palmer.[1]
Personal life[edit]
Relationships and marriages[edit]
In 1956, Davis met Kenneth DePew, a railroad worker and acquaintance of Georgia.[72] The two began dating and married shortly after, though Davis would later state that he had married her for her income: "He saw the nice new furniture my money had bought the Davises; he saw the Oldsmobile and knew I had money in the bank. I could be a short cut to easy street."[73] According to Davis, their marriage was not consummated until eight days into their honeymoon.[74] The couple divorced in late 1959.[75]
In 1960, she married WSM disc jockey Ralph Emery in Franklin, Kentucky.[76] Their marriage was tumultuous, with Davis recalling that Emery was jealous and controlling of her, refusing to let her work more than several days per month, obsessively calling her while she was on tour, and recurrently accusing her of infidelity: "Ralph accused me of being with everybody from guitar players to agents to producers to my hairdresser and believe it or not, to my brother and sister. Male or female, it made no difference."[54] The couple resided in Ridgetop, Tennessee, for a time, before Emery had a home built for them in the Brentwood area.[77] In 1964, after four years of marriage, Davis divorced Emery after finding he had been unfaithful to her and conceived a child with another woman.[78]
Davis later married NRBQ bassist Joey Spampinato in 1987. The couple divorced in 1996.[71]
Vegetarianism[edit]
Davis became a vegetarian in 1974, and remained so for the rest of her life.[79] She 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. "I really connected with that goat," she recounted, "and I couldn't bear to eat it."[79] She declined to participate or allow her music to be used in several lucrative advertising campaigns for meat and meat-related products.[79] Davis partly attributed her vegetarianism to her Christianity, as she felt killing animals for consumption was incongruent with her religious beliefs.[79]
Illness and death[edit]
In August 1988, Davis was diagnosed with breast cancer.[80] She underwent a mastectomy of her right breast to treat the cancer[81] and was in remission for several years before having a recurrence in 1996.[80]
In 2001, Davis became incapacitated by her breast cancer, which had metastasized. The following year, she made her final performance at the Grand Ole Opry, performing "The End of the World". She died of breast cancer in a Nashville, Tennessee, hospice on September 19, 2004, aged 72.[82] She is interred at Williams Memorial Gardens in Franklin, Tennessee.[82]
Legacy[edit]
Davis's song "The End of the World" has been named as a major influence on several artists: Among them are Lou Reed,[83] and 21st-century singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey, both of whom named it among their favorite recordings of all time.[84] Bob Dylan also recorded a version of "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know" featuring the Davis Sisters' arrangements on his 1970 album Self Portrait.[28] "The End of the World" was also used in the popular video game Fallout 4.
Nina Gordon, formerly of Veruca Salt, also covered the song on her 2000 album Tonight and the Rest of My Life.
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 also recorded by Ann-Margret, Pat Boone, Kay Starr, Joni James, and several others, in addition to Davis' original hit version. Deborah Harry recorded a remake of Davis' version in 1993 featuring Michael Stipe, a long-time Davis fan. (Conway Twitty wrote new lyrics for the instrumental in 1972 as "Lost Her Love (On Our Last Date)", which reached number one on the country chart, as did Emmylou Harris' remake of Twitty's version in 1983 retitled "Lost His Love (On Our Last Date)".)