Carolina Cotton

Carolina Cotton (nee Helen Hagstrom; October 20, 1925 in Cash, Arkansas – June 10, 1997, in Bakersfield, California) was an American singer and actress known as the "Yodeling Blonde Bombshell", the "Girl of the Golden West" and the "Queen of the Range".

Early life

Born to an Arkansas farming family who moved to San Francisco during the Great Depression, Hagstrom took dancing classes, became a child singer [1] and gradually accompanied traveling shows.

Career

At the age of 16, she was a high school student who would visit a radio station to watch the Dude Martin’s Roundup Gang. When the band's yodeler left to get married, Martin[2] asked her whether she could yodel she replied "Sure I can! Why not?" — though she had never before yodeled.[3] Dude gave her her nickname “Carolina” because he reckoned that Arkansas was not so well recognized in California[4] The surname “Cotton” came later thanks to fans and a radio disc jockey named Cottonseed Clark.[5]

In 1944, while in Hollywood to pick up costumes, she bumped into songwriter Johnny Marvin. He offered her a part in a film called Sing, Neighbor Sing that led to a further appearance in I'm from Arkansas. She was then asked to join the Spade Cooley Orchestra. In addition to appearing in musicals, she made a variety of Westerns where she learned how to ride a horse. She made a variety of television appearances with a planned series Queen of the Range never coming to be. She stated she only left making films when they no longer made B Westerns.

Carolina hosted a program called Carolina Calls twice a week on the Armed Forces Radio Services in the late 1940s and early 1950s and made tours of Germany and Korea.[6]

Inspired by meeting many children around the world during her travels, Hagstrom decided to become a teacher, but still performed occasionally, especially at western film festivals. She retired from Mount Vernon Elementary School in Bakersfield, California, in 1997, and died on June 10, 1997, after battling ovarian cancer for three years.

Notes

  1. ↑ The Encyclopedia of Country Music Oxford University Press, 04/01/2012
  2. ↑ Goggin, Jim The Dude Martin Band Story Trafford Publishing, 2005
  3. ↑ p.57 Cline, William C. Serials-ly Speaking: Essays on Cliffhangers McFarland, 1994
  4. ↑ p.64 Larkin, Colin The Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music Virgin, 1998
  5. ↑ http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4760
  6. ↑ p. 17 McNutt, Randy King Records of Cincinnati, Arcadia Publishing, 27/05/2009
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