Ruby Rose Blevins, known professionally as Patsy Montana, was born on October 30, 1908, in Beaudry, Arkansas. She grew up near Hope, Arkansas, and in 1929 moved to California to study violin at the University of the West, where she won a local talent contest that led to her first radio appearance on the Hollywood Breakfast Club. Blevins took her stage name from silent film star Monte Montana. In 1934, she released “Montana Plains”, followed in 1935 by her signature song, “I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart”, which made her the first female country recording artist to achieve a million-selling single. She performed regularly on WLS's National Barn Dance program and collaborated with notable artists such as Gene Autry and Pat Buttram. Montana was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in 1987 and into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996. She died on May 3, 1996, at her home in San Jacinto, California.
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