Bobbie Gentry carved out a profession as some of the profitable nation and crossover feminine artists of her period, however then, she merely vanished and not using a hint.
Born Roberta Lee Streeter on July 27, 1944, Gentry discovered multiples devices whereas rising up in Mississippi and started performing and honing a sound after she moved to California at age 13.
She began to determine herself with some encouragement from Bob Hope, taking the stage identify “Bobbie Gentry” from the 1952 movie Ruby Gentry, which tells the story of a Southern lady who was born into poverty, however who’s decided to make it in excessive society.
In 1967, she scored a worldwide hit with “Ode to Billie Joe,” making her one of many very first feminine artists to write down her personal music. The track was a success throughout a number of radio codecs, together with nation, and in 1967 Gentry gained Grammy Awards for Greatest New Artist and Greatest Feminine Pop Vocal Efficiency. She was additionally named the Academy of Nation Music’s Most Promising Feminine Vocalist.
For the following decade-plus Gentry was a fixture in a number of genres, scoring extra nation hits together with “Fancy,” which Reba McEntire would revive in 1991. The track a couple of younger lady whose mom encourages her to flee their lifetime of poverty by working as a high-class courtesan was particularly difficult in 1969 when she wrote and launched it.
Did You Know These Nation Hits Have been All Covers?
Gentry would go on to take pleasure in additional nation success with a number of duets with Glen Campbell, and she or he additionally hosted a preferred selection present on community tv, in addition to writing, producing and choreographing a splashy present in Las Vegas.
However she turned increasingly more disenchanted with the music enterprise as time went on, and after the failure of her 1978 single “He Did Me Improper However He Did It Proper,” she determined to retire from present enterprise, giving her final public performances in two TV appearances in 1981.
Gentry made no public announcement of her retirement; as an alternative, she merely disappeared, and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance have grown into mythological proportions within the many years since.
There have been rumors and studies of sightings, however even some relations have mentioned that they have no idea the best way to contact her. In 2016, a Washington Publish reporter claimed to have tracked Gentry all the way down to a gated neighborhood exterior of Memphis, the place she had reportedly been dwelling since 2010. Reached by telephone, she refused to talk with him, and it is unconfirmed whether or not it was actually the singer or not.
Now 82, Gentry has steadfastly refused to grant interviews or verify any particulars about her life immediately since her retirement in 1981.
These Highly effective Nation Ladies All Owe a Debt to Bobbie Gentry
