Lynn Anderson Exhibit To Open At Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum

Lynn Anderson, known for a string of hit songs including “Rose Garden,” “Keep Me In Mind,” and “How Can I Unlove You,” will be the subject of a new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Lynn Anderson: Keep Me In Mind will open Sept. 15, 2017 and run through June 24, 2018.

“Anderson’s television background and her ability to bring show-business dynamism to recordings and concert performances helped her achieve crossover success,” said museum CEO Kyle Young. “With talent and tenacity, the country music star brought increased visibility to the genre in the 1960s and ’70s, and we are privileged to share her story with our guests.”

Born in North Dakota and raised in northern California, Anderson started performing at age six, and by her teens she was appearing regularly on television. Her parents, Casey and Liz Anderson, were successful songwriters. Together, they wrote “The Fugitive,” a hit for Merle Haggard. The Andersons’ connections, and Lynn’s talent and hard work, led to her signing with Chart Records at age 19, in 1966.

By the late 1960s, Anderson was a regular on television’s Lawrence Welk Show, and from 1966 to early 1970 she notched five Top Ten country singles in Billboard rankings. By then, she was also an award-winning equestrian, taking home trophies and ribbons for riding show horses and cutting horses. In fact, Anderson competed in equestrian events throughout most of her life, winning 16 national and eight world championships, as well as the top trophies at several celebrity competitions.

After marrying songwriter and producer Glenn Sutton, Anderson moved to Nashville in 1969. She signed with Columbia Records in 1970, and Sutton produced her first sixteen albums including Rose Garden, released in December 1970. The album’s title track spent five weeks at No. 1 on the country chart and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. The album was among the first by female country singers to be certified Platinum for sales of more than a million copies.

Anderson had several No. 1s in the 1970s (“Keep Me in Mind” among them) and numerous Top Ten hits. She won a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1971. She was named the Academy of Country Music’s Top Female Vocalist in 1967 and 1970, and the Country Music Association’s Female Vocalist of the Year in 1971. In 1974, Anderson was the first female country singer to sell out Madison Square Garden. Anderson continued to perform and record until her death in 2015.