After her first efforts getting Tex Ritter's records released in Europe, Iris Violet May (Dixie) Lawrence came to the USA in 1961 to take a promotional job with Starday Records. When she moved to Nashville, Maybelle Carter took her in, where Dixie saw the courtship of Johnny Cash and June Carter.

Her first successful song was Dave Dudley's "Truck Driving Son of a Gun." When she got to the BMI awards dinner, she was seated with another developing songwriter, Tom T. Hall. After they married in 1968, she put the music aside for raising dogs and animal-abuse issues, as well as being an editor for Music City News. When Tom T. retired from the road, her writing bug came back strong, and she became the most successful female writer of bluegrass songs.

Miss Dixie passed after a long illness at age 80, and Busgal gets five points for the hit and five for the solo.

--Busgal