Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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ALLEN, Rosalie

(b Julie Marlene Bedra, 27 June '24, Old Forge PA; 23 Sep. 2003, Palmdale CA) Country singer. Queen of the yodelers; a popular radio star in US Northeast, recording for RCA '40s; her biggest success was a cover of her friend Patsy Montana's 'I Want To Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart'; also duets with Elton Britt including 'Beyond The Sunset (Should You Go First)' and 'Quicksilver'. She made her debut in Wilkes-Barre PA and was frightened to come to New York at first, but soon took the town by storm with her sunny personality: she was making $300 a week in 1943, had radio shows of her own at WOV-New York, as well as an Armed Forces Radio Network show, and was a partner in one of the first record shops in the USA to sell only country music, Rosalie Allen's Hillbilly Music Center on West 54th Street.