June Stearns moved with her family to New Castle, Indiana, at a very young age. Music ran through the Stearns household, so she picked up guitar and began performing in local settings by her early teens. After finishing school in 1957 she joined the cast of WLW Cincinnati’s Midwestern Hayride and stayed for two years. In 1960 she became part of Roy Acuff’s Smoky Mountain Gang, appearing with them on the Grand Ole Opry, traveling on tour alongside Acuff, and making separate solo spots on the Louisiana Hayride. She continued with Acuff’s organization until July 1965, when a car accident left Acuff and several band members seriously hurt; Stearns suffered only a broken ankle yet chose not to tour with him again. Her first recordings appeared on Starday in 1963, and she signed with Columbia Records in 1967. That December she and Lefty Frizzell cut “Have You Ever Been Untrue” and “If You’ve Got the Money (I’ve Got the Time),” issued by Columbia as a single credited to the pseudonyms Agnes and Orville. Three Billboard country-chart entries followed in 1968—“Empty House,” “Where He Stops Nobody Knows,” and the highest-peaking duet with Johnny Duncan, “Jackson Ain’t a Very Big Town,” which reached number 21. The pair also released an album and scored another chart single in 1969, “Back to Back (We’re Strangers).” Stearns placed three additional solo singles on the charts that same year, the strongest being “Walking the Midnight Road” at number 53. She later moved to Decca Records and logged three Top 60 hits during the early 1970s, the final one being “Your Kind of Lovin’” in 1971.
