Give Name: Mary Ann Ward Date of Birth: July 4, 1930 Place of Birth: Birmingham, Alabama Date of Death: December 19, 1999 Marital Status: Eugene "Happy" Wilson Children: Joyce Lee
Musical Syle: Straight-Ahead Country Talents: Singer, Songwriter, Guitar, Piano
For a decade from the end of the 50's through the end of the 60's, the blonde, green-eyed Marion Worth (known as Lady Marion) was a highly vaunted chart artist, who was a favorite on the Grand Ole Opry as well as the music rooms in Las Vegas. She was also one of the first Country performers to play New York's Carnegie Hall. Marion's father was a railroad worker who taught her to play piano. When she was age 10, she won a local talent contest for five straight weeks. However, she had set her sights on being a nurse and after high school and Paul Heynes, Jr. business college, she began medical training, but decided against nursing and utilized her business studies and she became bookkeeper for a record company. Marion and her sister won on another talent contest and this was the catalyst that she needed to make up her mind on a musical career. She made her radio debut on KLIF Dallas and then she worked on WVOK, WAPI and WAPI-TV, all in Birmingham. It was Happy Wilson (later her husband) who was so impressed with Marion that he began recording her.
At the end of 1959, Marion's recording of Are You Willing, Willie, on Cherokee, went Top 15. The following year, at a time when independent labels could still get high chart placings, Marion had a Top 5 hit with her Guyden recording of her self-penned song, That's My Kind of Love, which would be her most successful single. Jack Stapp signed her to WSM's Friday Night Frolic. As a result of the Guyden record, Marion was signed to Columbia Records, where she came under the production skills of Don Law and Frank Jones. With her new label, Marion scored a Top 10 single with I Think I Know. In 1961, she reached the Top 25 with There'll Always Be Sadness. Then for nearly two years, she was absent from the chart. Her 1963 recording of Shake Me I Rattle (Squeeze Me I Cry) reached the Country Top 15 and crossed over to the Pop Top 50. She followed up with her Top 20 version of Crazy Arms. That year, she became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. 1964 opened with the Top 40 hit You Took Him Off My Hands (Now Please Take Him Off My Mind) and followed with the Top 25 duet with George Morgan, Slipping Around. She finished the year with The French Song which also went Top 25. It was another year before Marion was back in the charts, when I Will Blow Out the Light was a Top 40 record. Marion then switched labels and signed to Decca, but by now her recording career was coming to an end. Although she charted twice more for her new label with A Woman Needs Love (1967) and Mama Sez (1968), neither rose up the middle level of the chart. Although Marion, whose hobby was the study of world history, has not graced the charts for years, she continued to be a much-in-demand live performer in the U.S. and Canada up until her death on December 19, 1999.
Source: http://www.countryworks.com/artist_full.asp?KEY=WORTH
