Cristy Lane

Born Eleanor Johnston among twelve siblings in Peoria, Illinois, Cristy Lane reached adulthood before her twentieth birthday and already counted three children by 1964. Salesman Lee Stoller, her husband, pressed her to pursue professional singing despite her acute shyness. Tentative steps eventually produced nightclub bookings and a 1968 guest spot on Chicago’s WLS Barn Dance radio program, after which she adopted her stage name from local Peoria disc jockey Chris Lane.

Early efforts to establish herself in Nashville yielded no results, and the career demands Stoller placed on her proved overwhelming. Twice during the late sixties she attempted suicide, the second time following a grueling 1969 Vietnam tour Stoller had arranged that included 120 performances and a helicopter crash stranding her amid active combat. The couple retreated to Peoria, where they opened two nightclubs that showcased Lane as the headliner.

In 1972 the Stollers relocated to a Nashville suburb and renewed their push for her breakthrough. Major-label executives responded with either apathy or overt advances, prompting Stoller to launch his own LS imprint in the mid-seventies. Persistent promotion paid off when the label’s first single, “Tryin’ to Forget About You,” charted in 1977, followed shortly by “Sweet Deceiver.” That same year “Let Me Down Easy” reached the Top Ten while “Shake Me, I Rattle” climbed into the Top 20. Three additional hits arrived in 1978, and the Academy of Country Music named her New Vocalist of the Year in 1979; during the ceremony she performed “I Just Can’t Stay Married to You,” which later peaked in the Top Five. United Artists Records signed her late in 1979, producing three more chart entries, yet the label initially refused the next planned release, “One Day at a Time.”

Written several years earlier by Kris Kristofferson and Nashville veteran Marijohn Wilkin, the gospel number aligned with other faith-based compositions Kristofferson had created during periods of sobriety. Shortly before Lane’s recording, Lena Martell had taken the song to the top of the British charts. Though unconventional for 1980 country radio, the track’s impact proved immediate, rising to number one on the country survey. “Sweet Sexy Eyes” followed as her final Top Ten hit. Momentum faltered when Stoller received a 1982 racketeering conviction, yet the couple recovered after observing Slim Whitman’s success with direct-response television marketing.

By 1986 they had prepared a paired One Day at a Time album and matching autobiography, both sold for years through television spots and later via the World Wide Web, sustaining Lane’s visibility among older country listeners. As Branson emerged as a premier live-entertainment destination in the late eighties and early nineties, Lane and Stoller established the Cristy Lane Theatre, which presented her own shows and hosted early appearances by future Branson regulars including Yakov Smirnoff in 1992. She sold the theater in the mid-nineties yet continued performing, issuing several collections of gospel and sentimental standards marketed through her website. Early-2000s plans called for a biographical film of her life.