Updated 04-May-2020.
Mondo shtuff from around the internet, all about MINNIE PEARL!
My botty best at summarizing from Wikipedia: Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon was an american country comedian . known professionally as her stage character Minnie Pearl . appeared at the grand opry for more than 50 years (from 1940 to 1991) minnie pearl’s first stage performance as Minnie Pearl was in 1939 in Aiken, South Carolina . her now-famous hat was purchased downtown at Surasky Bros. department store before the show pearl’s greeting became a call-and-response with audiences everywhere . her often self-deprecating humor involved her unsuccessful attempts to attract “a feller’s” attention . she also spun minnie pearl drew much of her comic material from her hometown of Centerville . the characters were largely based on actual Centerville residents . Cannon portrayed Minnie Pearl for many years on television . her last regular performances on national television were on Ralph Emery’s Nashville Now talk show . she performed in a weekly feature “Let Minnie Steal Your Joke” in the Minnie Pearl character . after the marriage the couple had no children . in 1969 they purchased a large estate home in Nashville next door to the Tennessee Governor’s mansion . after initially reporting good results and enjoying a public stock worth $64 million, the venture collapse the ensuing investigation cleared both Cannon and Jackson of financial wrongdoings . both were embarrassed by the negative publicity . she took on this role as herself, Sarah Ophelia Cannon, not Minnie Pearl she was friends with Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, and Paul Reubens . in 1992, she made what would be his last appearance as Pee-wee Herman for 15 years . a museum dedicated to minnie pearl was situated just outside the Grand Ole Opry House at Opryland USA . the museum closed along with the theme park in 1997 . many of its artifacts were moved to the Pearl was back on RCA in 1974 when Archie Campbell and she released a parody record of Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty’s hit “As Soon As I Hang Up the Phone” which received airplay, In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. Pearl, Minnie with Joan Dew (1980). Minnie Pearl: An Autobiography. New York: Simon & Schuster.