Holly Dunn

Born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1957, Holly Dunn emerged as one of country music’s most successful female artists by the close of the 1980s; her brother Chris Waters would later become a prominent Nashville songwriter. During high school she sang with the Freedom Folk, a group that traveled throughout the South and appeared at the White House bicentennial festivities. At Abilene Christian University she performed with the Hilltop Singers touring choir and, together with her brother, wrote “Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind,” which Cristy Lane recorded; the experience prompted Dunn to move to Nashville upon graduation.

She first worked in the city as a demo vocalist, then joined her brother on the CBS staff songwriting roster. In 1984 she transferred to MTM, where she supplied songs for various artists, among them Louise Mandrell, whose recording of “I’m Not Through Loving You Yet” reached the Top Ten. That success led to Dunn’s own recording contract, and her debut single appeared in 1985. The self-titled album that followed in 1986 yielded her initial Top Ten single, “Daddy’s Hands.” Cornerstone, issued in 1987, contained two additional Top Five entries—“Love Someone Like Me” and “Only When I Love”—while Dunn herself produced the 1988 follow-up, Across the Rio Grande, which generated the hits “Strangers Again” and “(It’s Always Gonna Be) Someday.”

After MTM declared bankruptcy, she moved to Warner Bros. and released The Blue Rose of Texas in 1989; the album delivered her first number-one single, “Are You Ever Gonna Love Me,” along with the Top Five “There Goes My Heart Again.” Heart Full of Love, out in 1990, produced another chart-topper in “You Really Had Me Going,” and Warner assembled the compilation Milestones the next year. One newly recorded track, “Maybe I Mean Yes,” drew criticism for lyrics some listeners read as excusing date rape. Getting It Dunn, released in 1992, met with diminished commercial response, after which Dunn left Warner. She returned in 1995 on the independent River North label with Life and Love and All the Stages, then signed with A&M for 1997’s Leave One Bridge Standing.

Citing shifting musical trends and a growing interest in painting, Dunn withdrew from commercial music in 2003, issuing only the gospel collection Full Circle before her departure. She died of ovarian cancer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in November 2016 at age 59.