Singer Brenda Lee is a Southern music icon who found her path early in life. Born Brenda Mae Tarpley in Atlanta,Georgia, she first fell in love with music by singing in church. But her mother recognized early on that her daughter’s voice was a gift and that this could be much more than just a hobby. She was right. 

Lee’s mother moved the family to Missouri when she got her first big break, to be a part of the TV show,  Ozark Jubilee. From there, she was signed to Decca Records, set a record of the most top ten hits by a woman, and at just 13, she recorded what would become a timeless holiday classic, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree.”

On this week’s episode of Biscuits & Jam, Lee sits down with Southern Living’s Editor in Chief, Sid Evans to discuss her unusual childhood, storied career, her own holiday traditions, her friendships with other iconic women in country music, and her six-decade-long marriage. 

Lee met her husband Ronnie Shacklett when she as just seventeen years old. She detailed their first meeting in an episode of PBS’s American Masters, and said that she’d gone to the Nashville Fairgrounds Coliseum with friend, Rita Coolidge, to see Jackie Wilson. Lee said she and Coolidge were just having a good time and she looked over and saw this “drop dead gorgeous guy” and knew she had to meet him.

She wrote him a note introducing herself and said that she would be in England for the next three months but he should call her. When she came home from England, that’s exactly what he did. They eloped six months after meeting and have been married since 1963. 

When Evans asked her what’s the secret to making their marriage work for this long, Lee quipped, “I’m just me and when I commit, it’s hard to get rid of me. My husband will tell you that.” 

She continued, “But no, I’m loyal to the ones that are loyal to me. And in this industry, that’s hard because everybody’s so busy. And it’s normal, but they’re so busy just trying to survive what this business offers, that it’s hard to make relationships.”

She also talked about the women she looked up to for examples of how to survive in this industry and maintain her own identity. 

“Patsy Cline was one of my dearest friends. Loretta. They were all older than me, but it didn’t matter. Tammy, all the girl singers. I just loved them ’cause I really respected what they did, what they offered, and how hard it was. Yeah, it looks easy on the stage and you know what? It is. But once you get off that stage and you take off the makeup and you take off the stage clothes and you get back on that bus for a 1000-mile trip to the next gig, that’s the work. The work on the stage is, is that work? ‘Cause you love it. The work is getting to where you love. And that’s the part you look forward to.”

Hear the entire conversation with Brenda Lee on Biscuits & Jam here.