Patsy Ann Bruce (née Smithson; March 8, 1940 – May 16, 2021) was an American
country-western
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, old- ...
songwriter, music artist manager, and casting agent and businesswoman. She is best known for songs co-written with her then-husband, singer
Ed Bruce
William Edwin Bruce Jr. (December 29, 1939 – January 8, 2021) was an American country music songwriter, singer, and actor. He was known for writing the 1975 song "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" and recording the 1982 co ...
, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the country-western standard "
Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys
"Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" is a country music song first recorded by Ed Bruce, written by him and his wife Patsy Bruce. His version of the song appears on his 1976 self-titled album for United Artists Records. In late 19 ...
," which was recorded by
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He pioneered the Outlaw Movement in country music.
Jennings started playing guitar at the age of eight and performed at age f ...
with
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album '' Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of '' Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (1 ...
and went to No. 1 on the country chart in 1978.
Biography
Early life
Patsy Bruce was born Patsy Ann Smithson to Henry and Hazel Smithson on March 8, 1940, in
Brownsville, Tennessee
Brownsville is a city in and the county seat of Haywood County, Tennessee, United States, located in the western Its population as of the 2010 census was 10,292, with a decrease to 9,788 at the 2020 census. The city is named after General Jacob J ...
.
Personal life and early career
In October 1964, while she was employed as a secretary she married William Edward Bruce Jr., subsequently known professional as Ed Bruce, who was working as a car salesman and trying to break into music at the time. They had met in
Nashville but married in
Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
before moving back to Nashville in 1966. They had a daughter in 1965, and she suffered a miscarriage in 1967, before giving birth to another daughter in 1968 and adopting a son in 1970; her husband also had a son from a previous marriage.
Patsy began serving as her husband's manager, and she also began writing songs with him, and the couple established several publishing companies in Nashville.
Professional music career
In 1975, they collaborated on the song "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" — Patsy suggested swapping in "cowboys" for Ed's original line "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Guitar Players."
Ed Bruce's version made it to No. 15 on the
Hot Country Singles
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sa ...
charts in late 1975 and early 1976. Then, in March 1978, a Waylon Jennings/Willie Nelson cover hit No. 1 on the country music charts and spent four weeks there.
A cover by
Gibson/Miller Band
Gibson/Miller Band was an American country music band founded in 1990 by Dave Gibson and Bill "Blue" Miller, the latter of whom was a former guest musician in rock musician Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band. Both Gibson and Miller served as vocalis ...
only reached number 49, however the song became a country standard and was named one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time by members of the
Western Writers of America
Western Writers of America (WWA), founded 1953, promotes literature, both fictional and nonfictional, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional Western fiction, the more than 600 current members also include histori ...
.
The Bruces had another songwriting hit with
Tanya Tucker
Tanya Denise Tucker (born October 10, 1958) is an American country music singer and songwriter who had her first hit, "Delta Dawn", in 1972 at the age of 13. Over the succeeding decades, Tucker became one of the few child performers to mature int ...
's 1978 cover of ''
Texas (When I Die)'', which Patsy co-wrote with her husband and singer
Bobby Borchers
Robert Jerome "Bobby" Borchers (born June 19, 1952 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American country music singer.
Borchers was raised in Kentucky. He learned to play guitar at age twelve, and got his first break in the mid-1970s, when Tanya Tucker re ...
. It made it to No. 5 on the ''
Billboard''
Hot Country Singles
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sa ...
chart.
Management and other business interests
She served a stint as president of the
Nashville Songwriters Association International in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
She and Ed also ran the Ed Bruce Talent Agency in Nashville during this period, and she worked as a casting director for the TV show ''
Maverick
Maverick, Maveric or Maverik may refer to:
History
* Maverick (animal), an unbranded range animal, derived from U.S. cattleman Samuel Maverick
Aviation
* AEA Maverick, an Australian single-seat sportsplane design
* General Aviation Design Burea ...
'' and the 1980 film ''
Urban Cowboy
''Urban Cowboy'' is a 1980 American romantic Western film directed by James Bridges. The plot concerns the love-hate relationship between Buford Uan "Bud" Davis (John Travolta) and Sissy (Debra Winger). The film's success was credited for spur ...
''.
Ed and Patsy Bruce had separated in 1986, and Ed formally filed for divorce the following year.
After the split, Patsy focused on the event management company "Events Unlimited".
She also became involved in politics, campaigning for
Phil Bredesen
Philip Norman Bredesen Jr. (born November 21, 1943) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 48th governor of Tennessee from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected in 2002 with 50.6% of the vote and ree ...
for governor. When he was elected, he appointed her to the
Tennessee State Board of Probation and Parole in 2004, and she served on the board for 10 years.
During this time, cases she voted on included those of John A. Brown, convicted of the murder of singer, musician, and
Grand Ole Opry member
David "Stringbean" Akeman
David Akeman (June 17, 1915 – November 10, 1973) better known as Stringbean (or String Bean), was an American singer-songwriter, musician, comedian, and semiprofessional baseball player best known for his role as a main cast member on the hi ...
; the Green Hills rapist; and Gaile Owens.
In 2017, she launched Songbird Tours, a songwriting-focused tour company in Nashville, with her son, the songwriter
Trey Bruce
Trey Edwin Bruce is an American songwriter. Bruce has written ten Number One singles on the ''Billboard''. "Look Heart, No Hands", "Spirit of a Boy, Wisdom of a Man" and "Whisper My Name" by Randy Travis, and "How Your Love Makes Me Feel" by Dia ...
.
Death
Bruce died on May 16, 2021, at age 81, of unspecified causes, just over four months after her ex-husband Ed Bruce's death on January 8, also age 81.
Selected discography
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruce, Patsy
1940 births
2021 deaths
People from Brownsville, Tennessee
American women songwriters
American country songwriters
Songwriters from Tennessee
21st-century American women