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UPDATE: The Annenberg Foundation caption information is off by a year; this is 13-year-old Brenda Lee at Centennial Park on June 8, 1958, performing in a concert sponsored by the Nashville Tennessean. (Her first Nashville performance was at night – a double bill with Pat Boone at Ryman Auditorium on September 16, 1957.)
Brenda Lee, "Little Miss Dynamite," in 1957 at age 12, in her first Nashville performance. Photo by Elmer Williams / Annenberg Space for Photography. View full size.
Brenda Lee was 4-foot-9 tall as an adult. At 13, probably somewhat less. The microphone on the left could have been for a person about 6 feet tall.
[The mike on the left is for the band. - Dave]
Just how tall could the ol boy using the microphone to her left be?
An amazing woman. She was supporting her family by her singing from the time her father died in 1953. Still married to her first husband since 1963. The Beatles were her opening act at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, before they made it big. The first and only woman elected to both the Rock and Roll AND the Country Music Halls of Fame. And she's still alive, and performing!
I grew up in Augusta, Ga., in the '50s and Brenda, who also lived in Augusta, was on the Peanut Faircloth Country Hour TV show every Saturday. I had a mad crush on her back then. She lived on Lionel Street, near one of my aunts, and I saw her a few times, though was afraid to say anything since she was an "older woman" three years my senior.
I'm going to guess this was in Centennial Park on West End Boulevard.
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