Sweetheart of the Rodeo

3.7.13

songstress style, obscure edition: linda manning

Oh Linda Manning, you're a mystery. A few cute rockabilly tunes from her can be found on YouTube, but just two photos have turned up in my extensive Google Image Searching, and nary a clip from the Linda Manning Show which this obituary says she lead. What gives? Why didn't anyone preserve any more vestiges of Linda Manning? Oh well, her elusiveness kinda heightens her mystique.

I first stumbled upon her portrait many and many a year ago (in a kingdom by the sea) and included it in this round-up of hillbilly fillies. Since then, she's always been in the back of my mind when I am getting ready before the mirror, because she is actually Perfection and if I could only have one "look" for the rest of forever I would choose her exact hair & makeup style, the end.

Behold: the 1960s country-singer kitsch is obvious, from her piled-high hair to that cool ruffled dress. Then there's just the right hint of dark glamour in her heavy cat-eye liner and long inky-black tresses.

Now, here's the only other picture I could find of Ms. Manning, but it doesn't disappoint:

source

A big-haired country singer who can also bring the Liz Taylor Old Hollywood glam factor?!

Instant style icon status for Linda!

Here are my favorite songs of hers; she had a cute li'l voice, like a rockabilly Annette Funicello!

---------

From Birmingham, AL's own wiki site:

"Linda Elane Manning Grissom (born November 24, 1946 in Cullman; died December 18, 2005 in Cullman) was a country and pop singer.

Manning recorded a half-dozen tracks for Tennessee-based Doke and Bulletin Records in the late 1950s and earned a spot as a featured singer on WAPI-TV in Birmingham, and hosted her own radio program from Cullman. In 1964 she was featured alongside Lee Stover and Tony Bellus on Cincinnati, Ohio's WLW-TV music variety program "Jamboree".

She married baseball player, actor and minister Mel Novak in Birmingham in October 1968 and lived with him in Hollywood, California."

---------

Do you have a mysterious style icon who haunts ya? A long-forgotten girl in a vintage snapshot with the best outfit, or a two-bit movie extra who just had "It"? I think these shadowy almost-fell-through-the-cracks people are even more fascinating than the well-known stars, don't you?

13.6.13

Art by Kelly Louise Judd

I recently stumbled across this Kansas City artist's remarkable work, and fell head-over-heels for her achingly lovely, haunted world. Some of her pieces remind me very much of 19th century needlework and folk art! Flora, Fauna, eidolic maidens, and gorgeous gloom pervades her images. I'm not usually a fan of the "retro"/pseudo-Victorian art that seems to flourish on Etsy, but I am somehow entirely smitten by these works; maybe because they have such a quiet, elegant spookiness. They actually remind me of days past here in Vermont, when I was younger and wore Victorian petticoats and spent a lot of time writing stories and exploring old farmhouses. (Why don't I do that anymore? Time to pick that back up.)

Take a look: website, etsy.

the dairy queen

I won this beautiful dress from the dreamy Etsy shop Trunk Of Dresses, via a giveaway on Lucky Lucille!! I couldn't believe my good luck, as this dress had my name all over it.

Every year my town has a festival to celebrate local agriculture, especially our rich dairy farming heritage. The true heart of the festivities is the Strolling of the Heifers, a fabulous parade where calves don wreaths of flowers to strut down Main Street!!