Brenda Lee’s name may not be as recognizable as some of the other music stars from the 1960s but when you think of Christmas, you’ll know her song, and start humming her catchy tune, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”
When Lee, now 78, first hit the stage, she wasn’t old enough to drive but her powerful vocals steered her “unprecedented international popularity” as the most successful female artist of the 1960s.
Lee, whose voice defied her diminutive stature at only 4 foot 9, became a fan favorite when she was only 12.
Brenda May Tarpley, born in 1944, got her start in the late 1940s, became huge in the 1950s, and over her career–that started before she left elementary school–she topped the charts 55 times, earning the title as the most successful female recording artist of the 1960s.
When Lee was only eight (according to Rolling Stone), her father, a construction worker, was killed at work and little Brenda–who then changed her last name to Lee–became the family’s primary provider.
Taking care of her younger brother, big sister, and mother–a cotton mill worker–was not a duty, but something she wanted to do. She said that she was thrilled when she made her first $20, so she could help her family: “Even at that young age, I saw that helped our life,” Lee said, adding “It put some food on the table. It helped, and I loved it.”
The Atlanta-born chanteuse, called a “pioneer of early rock and roll,” by the Georgia Encyclopedia, achieved “unprecedented international popularity in the 1960s.”
But, an incredibly humble human, Lee credits those who helped her achieve her dreams. When Christianity Today asked what she thinks about being a legend, Lee said “I don’t think of myself that way!” She continued, “I’m just a girl who’s been blessed to be doing what I’m doing, and there’s a lot of people who’ve sweated a lot of tears and put a lot of life’s work into me to be able to have my dream. So, if I’m a legend, then they’re legends, too.”
In 1956, the young girl joined country star Red Foley for a show at the Bell Auditorium near her home in Augusta, and she belted out “Jambalaya,” by Hank Williams.
She was then signed to appear on Foley’s Ozark Jubilee, a country music show, where millions of viewers fell in love with the sassy 12-year-old whose talent was developed well beyond her age.
In the same year, Lee signed with Decca Records, and the next year, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and fusing country with rhythm and blues–highlighted by her hiccupping vocals–she recorded early rockabilly classics like “BIGELOW 6-200,” “Little Jonah,” and “Let’s Jump the Broomstick.”
When asked if–when as a young girl–she was nervous performing in front of large crowds, she answered: “No, not really. Nobody ever told me to be nervous. The stage always felt like a hometown to me because I had been in front of people ever since I was 3 years old, singing to people. So it was a very comfortable spot for me.”
In 1957, Lee earned the nickname “Little Miss Dynamite” for her pint-sized powerhouse recording of the song “Dynamite,” and in 1958, fans heard “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree,” a genre and generation-crossing holiday standard, released when she was only 13.
“I knew it was magical,” she told Rolling Stone.
Over the next couple of years, she charted with hits like “Sweet Nuthin’s,” “All Alone Am I,” and “Fool #1.”
Most of her songs, however, contradicted her experience as a young girl. Her mother didn’t let her date and she graduated high school not understanding the heartbreak of young love.
She was only 16 when she said “Love could be so cruel” in the song “I’m Sorry” and only 16 when she said “I want his lips to kiss me” in the song “I Want to be Wanted,” both back-to-back hits when she was still in school.
And when she turned 18, she met Ronnie Shacklett, whom she’s now been happily married to for 60 years.
Life on the road for Lee as a youngster had its difficulties. She celebrated her 12th birthday in Las Vegas and speaking with the Las Vegas Journal, Lee explained her loneliness.
“Of course, I wasn’t even allowed to walk through a casino, I was so young. So I didn’t even know what a casino looked like. They took me into the kitchen, then into the showroom. And then when my show was over, I was brought back out through the kitchen and back up to my room. Children weren’t allowed … in the casino area.” She continued, “There wasn’t anything to do in Vegas for a kid. The most fun I had was on the stage.”
Speaking on what she missed out on as a child, the award-winning Lee said, “Many times, I yearned to be with my friends rather than be out there on the road.”
Turns out she made new friends on the road, like with the music group that opened for her at a 1962 show in Germany. “I hung out with John,” she says effortlessly, speaking of John Lennon. “He was extremely intelligent, very acerbic with his jokes, just a gentle person. When I found out that they later said they were fans of my music, I was just floored.”
After A Teacher Corrected A Student’s Test, The Whole Town Wanted Her Fired
Pennsylvania father Chris Piland was appalled to see what his second-grader’s teacher had written on a paper that the student had turned in. In addition to bullying Piland’s young child, the instructor tried to make him feel foolish and humiliate him in front of his peers—exactly the opposite of what educators should be doing if they are committed to helping pupils learn.
What action did the teacher then take? The word “absolutely pathetic” was scribbled over the tiny boy’s assignment. Piland is now asking for the teacher’s termination due to the disrespectful remark.
Because they are employed at Valley View Elementary School, the teacher takes pleasure in getting paid on a regular basis. However, they have recently come under fire for misusing their authority over the children. Piland discovered that the teacher isn’t doing their job, in addition to learning that the teacher finds his young son’s intelligence to be “absolutely pathetic.”
The instructor has already been announced as Alyssa Rupp Bohenek. She wrote her remarks using a red pen, a symbol of subpar work from pupils. The entire sentence said:
How pathetic! In just three minutes, he responded to thirteen questions! wistful She grimaced in response to that.
The purpose was to determine the number of subtraction problems the second graders could complete. The teacher gave the class three minutes to finish them, and she was horrified to see that Piland’s son, who had the lowest performance in the class, could only finish thirteen of them.
Piland called Bohenek out for her animosity after she uploaded the assignment’s photo online.
“My son, Kamdyn’s teacher, has been so cruel to him and me for the entire year. That someone would write this on a child’s assignment and then bring it home enrages me beyond measure. Adorable source of inspiration,” he said next the image.
Piland didn’t want the teacher to get away with her crime against his child, so he started an online petition to try and have her fired so she could no longer abuse her position over any other young second-grade pupils.
The outrage compelled Rose Minniti, the superintendent of schools, to respond. She stated that she was informed about the test last week and that she has already set up a meeting with the teacher who is accused to investigate the allegations and decide if firing the teacher is the appropriate course of action.
According to Minniti, social media won’t affect how this personnel case turns out. The proof and the facts will decide it. We constantly try to strike a balance between the needs of the kids and the requirements to safeguard the worker who is the focus of the inquiry.
Bohenek has worked at the elementary school since 2013. Has she gotten tired of looking after the little children already? Based on the look of her response, it appears that she is over it.
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