I was going through a box lot from auction recently when I came across a few 45 rpms. Most were children’s records – “Old MacDonald,” “Clementine,” “Rudolph” (on red vinyl) and “Frosty the Snowman” on a Peter Pan Records label.
The most interesting was a record on the Rhinestone Rooster label – I love that name! – and the singer was a woman named Lonnie Lynne LaCour. I’m not much of a country music fan – although I do like the know-when-to-hold-‘em-know-when-to-fold-‘em man Kenny Rogers (who I thought was out of circulation but found that he’s still performing) – but I was struck by the name of one song on the record: “Grandmother Trucker.”
“She’s a Grandmother Trucker
And there’s nobody tougher …
She won’t fail to mention
It’s a family tradition
She’s simply carrying on.”
My niece was a tractor-trailer driver for about a minute a few years ago. She handled those big wheelers like they were child’s play. She also had a few funny stories to tell about being on the road. I was always proud of her for taking them on; not many women – namely me – would have the guts to do so. And I’m sure there are not a lot of female truckers out there. (Last year, the Transportation Department announced that it was expanding an internship to encourage more girls to consider transportation careers, including trucking.)
So, when I saw LaCour’s record and the title, I wanted to hear her song and find out more about her. Listening to the song was easy; learning more about her was not. I could find very little by Googling. She recorded for Rhinestone, a small independent Nashville label whose major artist was a singer-songwriter named Terry Smith. I could find little about the label, too, other than it was owned by a man named Ralph Compton, who also owned a magazine called Hard Country Beat.
“Grandmother Trucker” was written by Smith, according to the record label. It’s on the trucker.com “Wantlist,” so I’m assuming it’s popular.
It seemed that LaCour has been singing country for decades. I found that she and a black yodeler named Mike Johnson performed for a group formed by Raymond “Cousin Ray” Woolfenden. He was a well-known country music dee-jay in Dumfries, VA, offering gospel, bluegrass and country music for 25 years on his radio station WPWC. He was inducted into the Nashville DJ Hall of Fame, according to Johnson.
LaCour also participated in the 1996 Easter Shore Opry show in Maryland. Here’s a YouTube video of her singing at the show.
Update:Jan. 15, 2012: Alice “Lonnie Lynne” LaCour died of cancer at age 76 on Jan. 12, 2012. You can read her obituary here, and view videos of her performances on April 20, 1996, in Part 1 and Part 2, and Sept. 16, 1996, posted by yodeler Mike Johnson, who also offers details on her career as a country singer.
I just came upon this blog by luck and was taken back to the early 1990s to the Birchmere in Alexandria VA when my wife and I sat down for a show and seatmate Lonnie Lynn LaCour introduced herself to us. We had some good discussions about country music and we discovered that she loved the music of David Allan Coe and caught his shows whenever she could. We actually saw Lonnie Lynn in the audience at the Birchmere at least one or two more times after that. She was very kind and gave us copies of her recordings.
Additionally, I am surprised and delighted to discover her connection to Mike Johnson. I have several of Mike’s recordings that I obtained for my radio show after I had moved to CT. The son of a locally famous CT country DJ turned me on to Mike’s music and it fit the country roots show I was doing at the time.
I am sad that she passed. She had a lot of spunk and I admired what she was doing. RIP.
hello. I am Lonnie’s daughter. My friend sent me this link and I am pleased to see that her music has found its way to others. My mother was a working musician for most of her life, starting way back in the late 40s. She came up at the same time as Elvis, the beatles, and so many other music icons. In fact she worked with quite a few of them at times. She always stood on the very edge of the spotlight, never quite coming into that halo of light for the world to see.
Her web presence in modern times was minimal at best, which would explain why you had so much trouble finding information about her and her career. She never did truly embrace the internet. I suppose like so many of her generation, it was just too scary.
She recorded several albums over the years, some of which I have the master recordings. I would be happy to provide you with copies of anything I have if you wish to hear more.
Thanks again for this lovely blog.
I was just going back through the comments and came across this one from a few years ago. Sorry, Rio, that I missed it.
Read your interesting article on my old friend Lonnie Lynn LaCour. Both her and Terry Smith and I have been good friends for years. Terry took over the Rhinestone label after Ralph’s passing and since his retirement from school teaching several years back, has been quite busy with his music. Both Terry and I also during our early music careers used Champ Recording Studio in Nashville, owned and operated by our mutual friend, the legendary Jim “Hobie” Stanton, founder of Rich-R-Tone Records. My music is still being sold at Lawrence Record Shop in downtown Nashville since my first 45rpm release in 1981.
Lonnie and I were members of Cousin Ray’s group C.E.M.B.A. for quite a number of years until his passing. She has known practically everybody under the country music sun.
Cousin Ray, whom I had known since a teenager, was inducted into the Nashville DJ Hall of Fame shortly before, not the Country Music Hall of Fame. Terry Smith and I were inducted into the Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame by the National Traditional Country Music Association in 2002.
Hi,
My name is Wendy Toney and have been friends with Lonnie’s daughter since 1986 and Lonnie was like a second mother to me. Last night around midnight after a lengthy illness, Lonnie passed on. I was looking for things on her today to see what I could find to help Rio with the service and I came across this. Whenever she came out with a new record or album or CD she always made sure I got one. She was such a great lady. I was honored to have the privilege to have known her in such a capacity and the world will shine a little less because she is gone. I have this 45 and I love it! I was invited to a few crab feasts with the veterans where they had karaoke and got to hear her as well as her daughter sing and she loved hearing me as well. She will be laid to rest in Arlington some day next week. Thanks fpr posting this, it is great to see that she has touched people with her music.
Wendy Toney
Thanks, Wendy. This is sad news. It’s a pleasure for me to have come across her record and written about her.
Sherry
I have heard of you, as Alice spoke of you many times. Yes she is resting in peace. Ramona was there with her the entire time. It was not easy hearing the painful times she was going through. May she rest in the peace she so deserved.