Connie Smith makes country music look easy. The well-known and respected star of the Grand Ole Opry enjoyed four remarkable years of commercial success then stepped away to raise a family and enjoyed an even longer tenure. She’s a woman of many nicknames and one country music’s most powerful female singers of all time.
Smith’s last charting country single came in the late 1970s, nearly 15 years after recording the Bill Anderson-penned “Once a Day,” a doo-wop-like country love song that became the first debut single from a female country artist to reach No. 1. She was as dependable of an ACM, CMA and Grammy nominee as Martina McBride would be 40 years later, and Miranda Lambert is today.
