Crystal Gayle
May 18, 2014
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum has selected Country star Crystal Gayle, as the subject of a spotlight exhibit that opened on Friday, May 2nd. The exhibit, called "Crystal Gayle: When I Dream," will feature fashion, awards, letters, family photos and more from career. It will run through Monday, November 3rd.
The youngest of eight children, Gayle was born Brenda Gail Webb on January 9th, 1951, in Paintsville, Kentucky. Not long thereafter, as the coal mines closed, her family left Appalachia to find work and moved to Wabash, Indiana. As a child watching her older sister Loretta Lynn's success, Gayle harbored her own musical aspirations. While still in high school, Gayle performed regionally and sampled life on the road with Lynn, joining her onstage for a couple of songs. Before graduating, Gayle signed her first contract with Decca Records, Lynn's recording home, and was asked to change her name because one of her musical heroes, Brenda Lee, was a mainstay on the label. Her adopted stage name, "Crystal," was suggested by Lynn as the two drove by a Krystal hamburger franchise.
Exhibit artifacts include:
- Hand-stitched valentine Gayle made in the third grade for her mother, Clara
- Gayle's custom white microphone, with her name engraved in gold
- Red parlor guitar, custom built for Gayle by luthier Danny Ferrington in 1980
- Photos of teenaged Gayle and her sisters Loretta Lynn and Peggy Sue that hung on their mother's living
- room wall
- LP cover for the soundtrack album to the 1982 film One from the Heart, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, featuring Gayle and Tom Waits. The album featured Gayle performing solo or as a duet partner with Waits, who wrote the songs.
- Flight suit and boots worn by Gayle on her F-16 flight in 1984
- 1977 Grammy for Best Female Country Performance, for "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue"
- 1976 ACM Female Vocalist of the Year trophy
- Marble and crystal Indiana Living Legend award, presented to Gayle in 2005
- Mattel's Crystal "Eagle" Gayle Air Force Barbie doll, which commemorated both her 1984 flight aboard an F-16 fighter and the fiftieth anniversary of the U.S. Air Force
For more information, visit www.crystalgayle.com or countrymusichalloffame.org.
By: Misti Douglas