Linda Martell

Linda Martell (born Thelma Bynem; June 4, 1941) is an American singer.

She became the first commercially successful black female artist in the country music field and the first to play the Grand Ole Opry.

As one of the first African-American country performers, Martell helped influence the careers of future Nashville artists of color.

Born and raised in South Carolina, Martell listened to country, gospel and R&B music.

In her teens, she formed a singing trio with her family titled Linda Martell and the Anglos.

Thelma Bynem was born June 4, 1941 as one of five children born to Clarence and Willie May Bynem in Leesville, South Carolina.

Her father was a sharecropper while her mother worked many hours at a chicken slaughterhouse.

To avoid helping with sharecropping duties, Martell learned to make dinners for her family when she was seven years old.

Her father was also a preacher, which inspired her earliest music.

She sang gospel music at church and was also drawn to country music.

Clarence Bynem regularly listened to the country music of Hank Williams on WLAC, based out of Nashville, Tennessee.

During the 1960s, the group recorded a handful of R&B singles and sang alongside other black performers.

However, the group had little success and soon parted ways.

Performing as a solo act, Martell was discovered singing country music on an air force base.

In 1962, The Anglos took an eight-hour bus ride to Muscle Shoals, Alabama where they recorded their first R&B single.

Re-named Linda Martell and the Anglos, Fire Records released "A Little Tear (Was Falling from My Eyes)" the same year.

The single was unsuccessful.

The group performed regularly.

They also sang backup vocals for R&B performers, such as The Drifters and Jimmy Hughes.

Linda Martell and the Anglos (sometimes credited as "The Angelos") released several more singles on the Vee-Jay label, such as "Lonely Hours".

David Browne of Rolling Stone called the song "simmering, forlorn girl-group pop".

The group parted ways after her cousin got married.

Her sister left the group soon after and Martell was a solo act for the first time in her career.

For several years, she continued singing R&B music.

While singing on a South Carolina air force base, Martell was heard singing country songs by Nashville furniture salesman William "Duke" Rayner.

This led to an introduction to producer Shelby Singleton, who signed her to his Nashville label in 1969.

The same year, the label released her country cover of "Color Him Father".

The song became a charting single on the Billboard charts and her debut album followed in 1970.

Martell made several appearances on country music television programs and released two more singles with Plantation.

She also made her first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry during this time.

She later performed there 12 times.

Following a series of business conflicts with her manager (Duke Raymer) and producer, Martell left her recording contract.

She then retired from the country music industry in 1974 following a lack of success.

Over the next several decades, she lived in various states and continued performing music.

To make a living, she worked in public education and returned to South Carolina in the 1990s.

"Until we got into our teens we knew country music and that was it," she told the Courier-Post in 1998.

Martell, her sister and cousin then formed a singing trio, which they called The Anglos.

The group performed R&B music and sang in areas around Columbia, South Carolina.

Local DJ, Charles "Big Saul" Greene convinced her to change her name from Thelma Bynem to Linda Martell.

"Your name is Linda Martell. You look like Linda. That fits you," Greene told her.