Leona Atkins, wife of Chet Atkins, dead at 85
Rob Cibik
The Associated Press
October 22, 2009
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Leona Johnson Atkins, wife of Nashville music
executive and legendary guitarist Chet Atkins, has died at 85.
A paid obituary from the Harpeth Hills Funeral Home says that as a
young woman Atkins and her twin sister performed as the singing duo
"The Johnson Twins." She met her husband while performing on radio
station WLW in Cincinnati and they married in 1946.
She is survived by daughter Merle Atkins Russell, a brother and five
sisters.
Visitation will be held on Saturday beginning at 11 a.m. at the
Harpeth Hills Funeral Home in Nashville. A memorial service begins at
1 p.m. Burial follows at the Harpeth Hills Memory Gardens.
Pallbearers include Vince Gill and honorary pallbearers include
Garrison Keillor.
Diner
Leona Atkins, widow of Chet Atkins, dies at age 85
Published by Peter Cooper on October 22, 2009
Leona Atkins, who sang with twin sister Lois Johnson as the Johnson
Twins before marrying guitarist, record executive and producer Chet
Atkins, died at her Nashville home Wednesday morning after a lengthy
illness. She was 85.
"She and Chet were a team," said recording artist Steve Wariner, a
longtime friend. "She'd tell stories about the hours he'd practice,
how he'd play and fall asleep with the guitar still in his lap. She'd
take it out of his lap and put him to bed."
Ms. Atkins was born Leona Johnson, near Williamsburg, Ohio. She and
Lois performed together as the Johnson Twins, using pseudonyms for
their first names: Leona was "Laverne," while Lois was "Fern." The two
sang on Cincinnati's WLW radio in the 1940s, and when Chet Atkins
appeared on the station's Boone County Jamboree he was smitten with
Leona. They married in 1946, the same year sister Lois married Jethro
Burns of Homer & Jethro.
Ms. Atkins did little in the way of performing after her marriage,
focusing instead on supporting Chet's career and on raising daughter
Merle, who was born in 1947.
"She's a big part of what made Chet great," said Country Music Hall of
Famer Vince Gill. "They were an inseparable pair: When you saw him,
you saw her."
Ms. Atkins' pre-Chet life as a singer made an impact, as well:
Garrison Keillor was a fan, and he used her as a model for a character
in his film, A Prairie Home Companion.
"I have always teased (Leona) about coming on the show and singing a
duet with me, which she has always declined to do," wrote Keillor,
host of radio show A Prairie Home Companion, on the show's Web site.
"She and her sister... were a fine sister duet act, doing sentimental
songs and novelty tunes, and when I came to write the screenplay for A
Prairie Home Companion (the movie), it occurred to me to put a sister
duet in it and name them for Leona and Lois. I sort of thought of
Meryl Streep as the Leona character, so I gave my character a little
wistful romance with her."
Rambunctious side
Ms. Atkins had a rambunctious side, often revealed when she'd call
friends and quote from comedy tapes she'd memorized. She also spent
hundreds of hours each spring and summer following the Atlanta Braves,
and Gill noted that she was a fine golfer. Mostly, though, she was a
music lover, whether the music came from her husband or from others.
"I'd come over and she'd always say, 'Sing me something,' Wariner
said. "And when I started having hits, there was nobody happier for
me. But she had such pride in the music Chet made. She'd say, 'Nobody
did it like Chester.' "
Visitation will be Saturday, Oct. 24, at Harpeth Hills Funeral Home,
9090 Highway 100, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. A memorial service will follow
at 1 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Willowbrook
Hospice, 381 Riverside Drive, Suite 440, Franklin, or to the Chet
Atkins Music Education Fund, P.O. Box 44025, Nashville, 37244.
busgal
> http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2009/10/22/leona-atkins-widow-of-c...
Thanks to Karen R I did know about Lois and Jethro