If you don’t know who Kitty Wells is, you aren’t alone. She’s a nearly forgotten voice in country music, but it was her pioneering efforts that paved the way for the likes of Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton.

In 1952, after a decade of being a working musician with limited success, she recorded a song called “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” and without realizing it had created her signature hit. It’s rumored that she intended this to be the last song she would ever do.

Even if you aren’t a fan of old country music or honky tonk, you should know who Kitty Wells was. In an age when women were VERY much second class citizens, Kitty Wells carved a path for female lead vocalists for generations to follow.

By the 1980′s she had largely retired from the spotlight, performing in smaller spaces, and with other acts.

She died Monday, due to complications from a stroke. She was 92.