Robert Humphrey Amburgey and Gertrude Quillen
Robert Humphrey Amburgey |
Gertrude Quillen Amburgey |
Con, Don and Glenn Amburgey |
L-R: Bertha and Gertrude Quillen |
L-R: Martha, Mattie and Minnie Amburgey - The Sunshine Sisters |
Don Chapel and Tammy Wynette |
Robert Humphrey Amburgey Jr b 11 May 1888 Knott Co KY d 30 Jul 1962 Clermont Co OH; s/o Alfred Amburgey and
Elizabeth Betts Amburgey. Robert Humphrey Amburgey m. 22 Nov 1917 to (2) Gertrude Quillen b 1898 KY d 27 Mar 1997 Nashville, Davidson Co TN; d/o Richard Quillen II
and Carrie Venters. (More about Robert Humphrey Amburgey Family).
Children of Robert Humphrey Amburgey and Gertrude Quillen;
1. Bertha "Minnie" Amburgey m. to (1) Charles "Ducky" Woodruff; (3 children); m. 1990 to (2) Bob Garcia. Minnie Woodruff was the female voice heard on
some of Bill Carlisle's biggest hits such as "Too Old To Cut The Mustard," "No
Help Wanted," and "Is Zat You Myrtle?".
2. Irene Ethel "Martha Carson" Amburgey b 19 May 1921 Neon, Letcher Co KY d Thursday, 16 Dec 2004 Nashville, TN age 83 (see obituary); m. (divorced 1950) 1st to James Roberts s/o Fiddlin' Doc Roberts; m. 2nd to Xavier Cosse.
3. Opal "Mattie" Jean Amburgey (aka Jean Chapel and Mattie O'Neill) b 6 Mar 1925 d 19 Aug 1995 Port Orange, Volusia Co FL; m. (divorced) (1)
Floyd "Salty" Holmes; (1 daughter); m. (2) Unknown.
4. Glenn Daniel Amburgey
5. Conley Martin Amburgey b about 1936 d Saturday, 14 Jun 2008
m. Mary Anne Unknown.
6. Lloyd
Franklin "Don Chapel" Amburgey
m. Unknown; Lloyd "Don Chapel" Amburgey m.
Tammy Wynette. (Lloyd
divorced Tammy after 3 years of marriage)
Robert Humphrey Amburgey
and Mary Annabelle C Baker
Robert Humphrey Amburgey Jr b 11 May 1888 d 30 Jul 1962; s/o Alfred Amburgey and Elizabeth Betts Amburgey. Robert Humphrey Amburgey m. 31 Dec 1911 to Mary Annabelle C Baker b 1898 d 1915; d/o Henry Baker and Martha Catherine Taylor.
Robert Humphrey Amburgey Gertrude Quillen and Family
Robert Humphrey Amburgey occupation;
mechanic and carpenter; he played the fiddle which inspired his daughter,
Irene "Martha Carson" to be a musician.
Robert Amburgey and his wife Gertrude Quillen
Amburgey were of hardy mountaineer stock. They made their home in the coal
mining region of Letcher County in eastern Kentucky, near the Virginia line.
Their house was the next to last one up the holler out from Neon, Ky., which
appears on today's Kentucky maps as Fleming-Neon. Robert was a carpenter and a
brattice man, builder of coal mine support structures. Gertrude kept house,
looked after the cows and chickens that were the source of much of what the
family had to eat, and tended to her children, of whom there would eventually
be six; three girls and three boys.
The Amburgeys lived less than 50 miles, as the crow flies, from Poor Valley,
Va., home of the legendary Carter
Family. Like the Carters, the Amburgeys and the Quillens were musically
talented. The Amburgeys were noted for their ability to play string
instruments, and the banjo was the one that Robert Amburgey chose to
concentrate on. The Quillens, on the other hand, were singers. They sang the
Stamps-Baxter-type gospel material and traveled over a wide circuit of eastern
Kentucky visiting churches where they performed at all-day singings and
shaped-note singing conventions.
Gertrude Amburgey, who did not bestow full
approval on her husband's banjo picking, persuaded him to join herself, her
father, and her brother in forming the Quillen Quartet which was well received
by congregations who loved the gospel harmony they performed.
Into this rich heritage of string instrument and gospel music the three
Amburgey sisters, Bertha (Minnie), Irene (Martha), and Opal (Mattie Jean), in
that order, were born.
"We just had a love for the string instruments," Martha says. At an early age,
Minnie adds, "we were trying to sing, too. We were trying to get into the
act." She says that seeing and hearing their parents singing before church
audiences impressed them as very glamorous. "And we thought we wanted to do
that, too," she says.
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