Mimi Roman With The Anita Kerr Singers - Cryin Myself To Sleep Thru With The Blues

This green-eyed female singer was born in Salinas, California. At an early age, she took a liking to riding horses as she grew up near the Salinas Rodeo. When she was fourteen years old, her family moved to New York, where she attended Erasmus High School in Brooklyn. She always seemed to enjoy singing and her parents encouraged her musical efforts. She started taking piano lessons when she was just eight years old. She later learned the guitar around the age of 18. After high school graduation, Mimi entered Hofstra College, majoring in art. Her guitar instructor heard her sing one day and was impressed to the point of encouraging her to pursue that avenue. In March of 1954, she appeared on the famed Arthur Godfrey Talent Scout show. That led to many offers for other personal appearances. A turning point came in September of 1954 when she was crowned Queen of the Rodeo that was held in Madison Square Garden. Her horsemanship, personality and beauty earned her that crown. She was also pretty sharp with a rifle and won many a competition. When she was just twenty years old, she was recording for Decca Records. Eddie White was her manager then and brought her to the attention of Decca's Paul Cohen. Her first release on Decca was a tune by Hank Williams, "Weary Blues From Waiting" b/w "Oh, I Like It". Her musical talents and career took her eventually to radio station WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio and she became part of the cast of the Midwestern Hayride. After that stint, she tells us she made a number of guest appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, Ozark Jubilee, Louisiana Hayride and a variety of other shows, working out of Nashville with various country and western package shows that starred the likes of such folks as Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Ernest Tubb, Minnie Pearl, and others. She also continued to make recordings for Decca. For a while, Mimi was a part of Pee Wee King's band the Golden West Cowboys, traveling by bus from Louisville to Chicago every weekend for his Saturday night TV show. She recalls one particular winter's night standing next to the driver all the way home in a snowstorm to make sure he stayed awake! Leo Zabelin, Editor of Country & Western Jamboree magazine back in 1955, wrote in his column that Mimi joined the famed WLW Midwestern Hayride show, replacing Mary Jane Johnson, who had decided to move to the west coast. In 1956, she earned the votes of the fans in Country & Western Jamboree's polls, finishing in the Top Ten for Best Female Singer and Best New Female Singer. Kitty Wells and Wanda Jackson were the top vote getters that year in those categories. In June of 1956, The Disc Jockeys named her the number two Best New Female Singer behind Miss Jackson in the magazines second annual poll. Connie Salzl wrote in her News from the Midwest article in 1956 that Mimi was part of the first Grand Ole Opry show to appear at the Bloomington Stadium in Minneapolis. This event occurred during the Minneapolis Aquatennial. Some of the other stars on that show were Ray Price, Van Howard, Ferlin Husky, Mitchell Torok, the Wilburn Brothers along with local DJ and singer, Johnny "T" Talley. In late 1958, she recorded a duet for Decca with Billy Gray - "Mr. Opportunity" b/w "We're Taking Chances". Back then, Country and Western Jamboree magazine would actually add a few comments of what they thought of the new releases of the day. In this instance, they noted that the timing was good for the duo for there wasn't any other male/female duet activity on the charts at the time. They noted that they both "...did a nice job, both during their own solos and when they harmonize." In early 1956, the same magazine wrote a short synopsis that gave the readers the gist of the two song titles. For her Decca release, "Wrap It Up And Save It" b/w "My Tears Are Beginning To Show

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