Felice Bryant
Musician · d. 2003
Felice Bryant and her husband Boudleaux were the first full-time professional songwriters in Nashville and the writing team behind the Everly Brothers’ catalog and “Rocky Top” — the bluegrass anthem and Tennessee state song. Felice typically supplied the lyrics, Boudleaux the music; the partnership produced an estimated 1,500 published songs over four decades.
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- Born Matilda Genevieve Scaduto on August 7, 1925, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Italian-immigrant parents.
- Met Boudleaux Bryant in 1945 while working as an elevator operator at the Schroeder Hotel in Milwaukee, where he was performing with a country dance band; they eloped five days later.
- The pair’s first hit, “Country Boy,” was cut by Little Jimmy Dickens in 1949 and led to their long working relationship with Fred Rose at Acuff-Rose Publishing.
- Moved with Boudleaux to Nashville in 1950, becoming the first full-time professional country songwriters in the city.
- Co-wrote the Everly Brothers’ defining run starting in 1957: “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” “Bird Dog,” “Devoted to You,” and others.
- Co-wrote “Rocky Top” with Boudleaux in 1967; the song was first cut by the Osborne Brothers, became a bluegrass standard, and was adopted as a Tennessee state song in 1982.
- Continued writing after Boudleaux’s death in 1987 and remained active in the songwriting community in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
- Died April 22, 2003, at age 77 in Gatlinburg.
- Inducted (jointly with Boudleaux) into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1972), the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1986), and the Country Music Hall of Fame (1991).
