Bobbie Gentry carved out a profession as one of the vital profitable nation and crossover feminine artists of her period, however then, she merely vanished with out a hint.
Born Roberta Lee Streeter on July 27, 1944, Gentry realized multiples devices whereas rising up in Mississippi and commenced performing and honing a sound after she moved to California at age 13.
She began to ascertain herself with some encouragement from Bob Hope, taking the stage title “Bobbie Gentry” from the 1952 movie Ruby Gentry, which tells the story of a Southern woman 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 put in writing her personal music. The music was a success throughout a number of radio codecs, together with nation, and in 1967 Gentry gained Grammy Awards for Finest New Artist and Finest Feminine Pop Vocal Efficiency. She was additionally named the Academy of Nation Music’s Most Promising Feminine Vocalist.
For the subsequent 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 music a few younger girl 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.
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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 well-liked selection present on community tv, in addition to writing, producing and choreographing a splashy present in Las Vegas.
However she grew to become an increasing number of 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 a substitute, she merely disappeared, and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance have grown into mythological proportions within the a long time 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 Submit reporter claimed to have tracked Gentry all the way down to a gated group outdoors of Memphis, the place she had reportedly been residing since 2010. Reached by cellphone, 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 affirm any particulars about her life as we speak since her retirement in 1981.
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