It’s a sad day for country music with the death of the legendary Queen of Country Music, Kitty Wells, at the age of 92. She passed away peacefully at her home from complications due to a stroke. One of the format’s pioneering female vocalists, the Nashville, Tennessee, native — born Ellen Muriel Deason on August 30th, 1919 — spent six weeks at number-one on the Billboard country chart with her debut chart single, the format’s first-ever solo female chart-topper, 1952’s classic “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.” In 1937, she married fellow country singer Johnnie Wright, and they remained together until his passing last year at the age of 97. A 1991 GRAMMY® Lifetime Achievement Award winner and a 1976 inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Kitty Wells was the top female country artist of her generation, charting 35 Billboard Top 10 singles during her career.

According to Nashville’s WKRN News, services will be held this week. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any memorials be offered as donations to Goodpasture Christian School in care of the Kitty Wells/Johnnie Wright Scholarship Fund. http://goodpasture.org/

Among some of the artists responding via Twitter to the news of Kitty’s passing:

Loretta Lynn: “Kitty Wells will always be greatest female country singer of all times. She was my hero. If i had never heard of Kitty Wells, I don’t think I would have been a singer myself. I wanted to sound just like her, but as far as I am concerned, No one will ever be as great as Kitty Wells. She Truly is the Queen of Country Music.”

Little Jimmy Dickens: “I will surely miss you Kitty…RIP”

Jerrod Niemann: “#RIP Kitty Wells – A real Honky Tonk Angel.”