A brief look at the life of a much beloved “hillbilly” comedienne.
Minnie was not a particularly handsome woman and she worked that into her routine. She would tell of the time she was riding a bus when a man across the aisle looked at her. “Did you just give me a funny look?” she asked. “He replied, “Lady, you’ve got a funny look but I didn’t give it to you.”
She also sang and and accompanied herself on the piano from time to time. She did this in comedic fashion as well since she was neither a good singer nor an accomplished pianist. She would tell the audience, “I can play the piano in two keys. One is in the key of C and so is the other.”
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Frequently Minnie Pearl would team up with Opry comedian Rodney Brasfield (above) to do funny skits, usually in the manner of one-upmanship in which Minnie came out the winner. While discussing recent fishing outings Rod told Minnie he had run out of bait but caught a 25-pound bass on a bare hook. Minnie countered by claiming she had snagged a coal oil lantern…and it was still lit. Rod thought for a minute, then said, “By Ned, Minnie, I’ll take 20 pounds off my bass if you’ll blow out that lantern.”
She never mentioned it to her fans while performing as Minnie Pearl but midway through her career Sarah Cannon was stricken with breast cancer. She missed some Opry performances but she didn’t want anything but laughter to come from Minnie Pearl and a double mastectomy wasn’t funny. She became active in cancer research and a non-profit Minnie Pearl Cancer Foundation has been established in her memory. She died of a stroke in 1996.
Minnie’s greatest dream, one never achieved, was to become a dramatic actress. She co-starred with Johnny Cash in a made-for-television movie some years back, the title of which has escaped me. She played a school teacher to Johnny’s illiterate adult character. The movie was not very good nor was the acting (my assessment.)
Now, to the point of this essay, here is the story I like the best as only Minnie could tell it. These are her words:
I was walking to my dressing room at the Opry one Saturday night and a mugger came up to me and sez, give me all your money or I’ll shoot you. Well sir, I opened up my purse and I pulled out two dollars which was all I had on me at the time. The mugger was mad. Ma’m, he said, I guess I’m gonna have to frisk you. With that he started feelin’ all over me, reachin’ inside my clothes and down my bra and all. I mean ever’where. He sez, are you sure that’s all the money you got? I said, that’s all the cash but if you’ll do that again I’ll write you a check.
Wow ken great artical, I am a minni pearl fan since i was old enougt to watch her on the grand ole opry an hee haw, what great childhood memories you have given me on this one and I to loved is story. it was just one of her greatest and thanks for sharing the histry so people have an idea who she was, seems funny to hear people say they never heard of her 
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