Mabel Sonnier Savoie (October 4, 1939 – July 10, 2013) was an American singer and guitar player with roots in Southern Louisiana's country and western and Cajun music scene. She was one of the first solo female recording artists in Louisiana.

Biography

Mabel Sonnier was born on October 4, 1939, in

Opelousas, Louisiana :''Opelousas is also a common name of the flathead catfish.'' Opelousas (french: Les Opélousas; Spanish: ''Los Opeluzás'') is a small city and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190 were ...

. She began her career at age 7 with a public appearance in October 1946 at the Jennings Commission Barn where she won her first talent show and subsequently purchased her first guitar. She became a regular on the Happy Fats Amateur Hour. After the owner of KSLO radio in Opelousas heard Sonnier's powerful voice, he offered the young girl a chance to become a member of the Blue Room Gang, a local Cajun-Country band. One of Mabel's bandmates included

Rod Bernard Rod Bernard () was an American singing, singer who helped to pioneer the musical genre known as "swamp pop", which combined New Orleans-style rhythm and blues, country and western, and Cajun and black Louisiana Creole people, Creole music. He ...

. In November 1950, the Blue Room Gang opened for

Hank Williams Hank Williams (born Hiram Williams; September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he reco ...

. This exposure eventually led to Sonnier's own radio program, as well as an 18-year stint on a morning radio program where every show began with the song " Bouquet of Roses". She was offered a contract with the

Louisiana Hayride ''Louisiana Hayride'' was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of th ...

, but turned it down in order to focus on her growing family. In 1960, she was offered a record contract with AMA Records and recorded "Search My Heart" and "Just Like a Child" under the stage name "Kee North". In recognition of her accomplishment as one of the first females in Louisiana to secure a record contract, she was given the key to the City of Opelousas. Sonnier took a break from performing, but returned in 1991, and became a featured performer at The Fort Bend Opry and the Texas Country Hoedown opry style shows and became known as the "Cajun Rose". Her signature song was her rendition of "Jolie Blon," a French standard sung entirely in the

Cajun French Louisiana French ( frc, français de la Louisiane; lou, françé la lwizyàn) is an umbrella term for the dialects and varieties of the French language spoken traditionally by French Louisianians in colonial Lower Louisiana. As of today Louisia ...

language. She died on July 10, 2013, in

Porter, Texas Porter is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Texas, Montgomery County in southeastern Texas within the metropolitan area. In 2010, its population was estimated at 25,769.1939 births 2013 deaths American women singers Singers from Louisiana People from Opelousas, Louisiana 21st-century American women