Country Music Hall of Famer and Grand Ole Opry member Barbara Mandrell retired from the stage before turning 50. However, she and her family spent four entertaining and groundbreaking decades onstage. Those years ultimately redefined the country music industry’s mainstream expectation for pop and soul artistry and live performance.

A member since 1972, the Grand Ole Opry has played a perpetual role in her growth as a singer-songwriter and cultural icon.

In 1967, Mandrell was an 18-year-old former country music child star and then newly married to her Naval officer husband, Ken Dudney. She visited the Ryman Auditorium with her family for a live taping of the Opry’s weekly television program.

Barbara Mandrell performs during a “Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Celebration of the Life & Music of Loretta Lynn” memorial concert at Grand Ole Opry House Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022 in Nashville, Tenn.

“I had been a country performer for eight years, and I was ready to be a Navy wife,” Mandrell recalled to The Tennessean in 2022.

While watching Dolly Parton perform, her desire to perform was rekindled.

She leaned over and told her father, “If you’ll manage me, I want to get back into show business.”

“If you want me to,” he replied, “I’ll bet my last penny on you.”

Barbara Mandrell’s hitmaking career

The Country Music Hall of Famer is noted for her 27 studio albums, including seven that reached the top 10.

A decade after building her career on covers of seductively soulful stylings, including covers of Memphis hits like Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (to Stop Now)” and Shirley Brown’s “Woman to Woman,” two #1 records followed: 1978’s “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed” and a 1979 cover of another Memphis-crafted favorite, Luther Ingram’s “If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don’t Want to Be Right).”

In 1972, she was inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

“The Grand Ole Opry feels comfortable and is home,” Mandrell says. “I’m proud to be a member of the family of members that can call the Opry home for the rest of their careers.”

The friendships she formed with the program’s longtime hosts, Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl, were “treasured.”

The Country Music Association awarded Mandrell the Female Vocalist of the Year trophy in 1979 and 1981. In 1980 and 1981, she also won the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year award.

“Her performances showcased her musicality, whether she was singing to the top of the rafters, playing pedal steel, the banjo, or the saxophone,” USA TODAY wrote in 2022.

“It’s called show business. You need to show them something,” Mandrell told the Associated Press. “Otherwise, they could sit at home and listen to your recordings or listen to you on the radio. You’ve got to give them something that entertains them.”

‘I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool’

In 1981, Mandrell released “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool.”

The song was released during an era where country music was indeed “cool” enough that she co-hosted the Golden Globe-nominated and NBC-aired “Barbara Mandrell & the Mandrell Sisters” variety show.

About co-writing the song, she told The Tennessean the following:

“One day, I was telling (co-writers) Kye Fleming and ‎Dennis Morgan that when I was a child, kids used to tease me, ‘Yeehaw, country music,’ they’d say, trying to tease me or make me feel embarrassed. Years later, those same kids were adults and showed up in autograph lines.

“It might be tacky of me to say that, but I’m proud of country music. I love it. It’s everything to me.”

Barbara Mandrell, right, with the support of Loretta Lynn, second from right, speaks to the audience after being honored with the Tex Ritter Award during the International Fan Club Organization Show during Fan Fair at the Tennessee State Fairground on June 14, 1985.

When did Barbara Mandrell retire from country music?

Mandrell suffered mood swings and emotional angst following a near-tragic 1984 automobile accident that limited her career after that point.

A dozen years after her accident, she retired at 49 in 1997. Her last concert was held at the Opry House and made into a TV special called “Barbara Mandrell and the Do-Rites: The Last Dance.”

Mandrell hasn’t played music or sung — other than in church — since then.

Beyond music, Mandrell also appeared in numerous television series throughout the 1990s, including “Baywatch” and “Touched by an Angel.”

In 2022, the Grand Ole Opry celebrated a half-century since her induction into the program.

Carrie Underwood performed “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool,” while artists including CeCe Winans, Linda Davis and Suzy Bogguss also performed other hits.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Barbara Mandrell: What led to Grand Ole Opry hitmaker’s retirement?