Margo Smith
Singer and songwriter Margo Smith passed away on January 23, 2024. She was 84.
Born Bette Lou Miller in Dayton, Ohio, in 1939, she took on the stage name Margo Smith and left her career as a teacher to chase her musical dreams. It was in her 30s that she decided to pursue being a singer and songwriter, leading her to Nashville, where she recorded her solo-written songs.
She exploded onto the scene in the late 1970s with hits such as “Love’s Explosion,” “Take My Breath Away,” and “My Weakness,” all of which she co-wrote. It was her song “Still a Woman,” released in 1979, that cemented her success in the commercial market.
Smith had several iterations of her career, and one of those was as “The Tennessee Yodeler.” In 1983, she released The Best of the Tennessee Yodeler and continued releasing TV Market albums. In the mid-1990s, she partnered with her daughter, Holly, forming the duo Margo Smith and Holly. They released several Country-Christian hits and even earned the Christian Country Music Award for Vocal Duo of the Year in 1994.
Throughout her career, Smith released 18 albums and charted 27 singles.