By the early 1960s, Smith had already become a married woman with a four-month old son, living in Marietta, Ohio. She was soon married and became a housewife and had children. In West Virginia, she began to start singing locally. Her father was abusive when she was a child, causing Smith to suffer a mental breakdown while she was in her teens. Both of Smith's parents were from West Virginia. Although she was born in Indiana, she spent much of her early years in West Virginia and later in Ohio. Smith was born Constance June Meador in 1941 in Elkhart, Indiana. Although she never achieved the level of commercial success as some of her contemporaries, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Lynn Anderson and Dolly Parton, she is often hailed by music critics as one of the finest voices in country music, voted in 2001 by fellow artists and members of the Country Music industry as #9 of the 40 Greatest Women of Country Music of all time (CMT).Biography & career

'Once a Day' launched Connie Smith straight to the top of the country music industry and, for a brief period, she was one of the top female stars of the genre during the mid 1960s.

Her lonely desperation came straight from the heart, also: Her father was abusive when she was a child, causing Smith to suffer a mental breakdown while she was in her teens. Perhaps overly compared to and identified with Patsy Cline, Smith is still considered by many to be one of the best and most underrated vocalists in country history. In less than a year, Connie Smith moved from being a small-town Ohio housewife to country stardom with a number one single to her credit. This was Smith's only single to reach the No. 1 on Billboard's Country music charts, the longest of any female country music artist in history.

She is best known for her 1964 hit song 'Once a Day', which spent 8 weeks at No. Connie Smith (born Constance June Meador 14 August 1941, in Elkhart, Indiana) is an American country music singer.

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