In 1953, a 20-year-old girl from a Texas cotton farm had the most popular country record in America. Four years later, Goldie Hill married Carl Smith and quietly stepped away from the life most young singers in Nashville were chasing. She never had another hit like it. She also never stopped being Mrs. Carl Smith, right up until the day she died in 2005.
It is one of the most unusual trades in country music history. It starts with a song that was never supposed to be hers.
A Demo Meant for Kitty Wells
Goldie Hill was born Argolda Voncile Hill on January 11, 1933, near Karnes City, Texas. Her older brother Tommy Hill was a working songwriter and honky-tonk guitarist, and he had an idea. The biggest country song of 1952 was “Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes,” a warning to a sweetheart not to fall for someone new. Answer songs were popular in those days, so Tommy wrote one from the woman’s side and called it “I Let the Stars Get in My Eyes.”
He had a singer in mind, and it was not his little sister. Tommy hoped Kitty Wells, the hottest female voice in Nashville, would record it. To pitch the song, he had Goldie sing it on a demo during one of his own Decca sessions.
Decca producer Paul Cohen heard that demo and did not hand the song to Kitty Wells. He signed Goldie and had her cut it herself. She recorded it in Nashville on October 8, 1952. She was 19 years old.
Three Weeks at the Top
Decca released the record on December 1, 1952. By early 1953, Goldie Hill was at No. 1 on the country chart, and she stayed there for three weeks. In that era, almost every chart-topper was sung by a man. Kitty Wells had only just shown that a woman could reach the top. Goldie became one of the very first to follow her there.
Nashville gave her a nickname that stuck for the rest of her life: The Golden Hillbilly. On August 22, 1953, she made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry. She went on to cut duets with Justin Tubb and Red Sovine, including the 1955 top-20 hit “Are You Mine.” She appeared on Ozark Jubilee and toured with the Philip Morris Country Music Show.
She never matched that first No. 1, but at 24 she was still young, well known and working. Then came the wedding.
September 19, 1957
On September 19, 1957, Goldie Hill married Carl Smith. He was one of the biggest stars of the decade, with a string of top-10 hits and a hard-edged honky-tonk sound. He had also recently divorced June Carter, with whom he had a young daughter, Carlene.
Soon after the wedding, Goldie pulled back from performing. She toured alongside Carl for a while, but before long she had left the road to raise their three children, Carl Jr., Larry Dean and Lori Lynn. Carl kept his career going. Goldie kept the home.
Not Quite Gone From the Microphone
Goldie did not disappear from the studio overnight. She kept recording for Decca into the early 1960s and released albums in 1960 and 1962. In 1968 she signed with Epic and made a short comeback under the name Goldie Hill Smith. One single, “Lovable Fool,” reached No. 73. It was the last time her name appeared on the country chart.
Friends said she kept her friendships in the business and simply did not worry about her own career. She had made her choice.
A Horse Farm in Tennessee
When Carl Smith stepped away from music, the couple settled into life on their horse farm outside Franklin, Tennessee. For more than a decade, they showed horses professionally together.
Goldie Hill died of complications from cancer on February 24, 2005, at Baptist Hospital in Nashville. She was 72. She and Carl had been married for 48 years, an almost unheard-of run in a town known for short marriages. She was laid to rest at Williamson Memorial Gardens in Franklin. Carl Smith died in 2010.
Most people today remember Goldie Hill, if they remember her at all, as Carl Smith’s wife. But in the early months of 1953, the song her brother wrote for someone else made her the queen of country radio. Do you remember hearing “I Let the Stars Get in My Eyes” on the radio?