Nov. 10: Country music legend Donna Fargo is 65 today.

Born Yvonne Vaughan in Mount Airy, North Carolina (yes, the same town often mentioned on the Andy Griffith Show) Donna is best-known for a number of Top 10 country hits in the 1970s. These include "The Happiest Girl In the Whole USA" and "Funny Face," which both became crossover pop hits in 1972.

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Since her debut in the late 1960s, Donna has been feted with many honors including one Grammy Award, five awards from the Academy of Country Music and one award from the Country Music Association.

A graduate of the University of Southern California (USC), she became a high school teacher in Covina, California, eventually progressing to head of the English Department. While in California, she met Stan Silver, who became her manager when Fargo was performing in California clubs and first seeking a career in music while carrying a full-time teaching load. (Fargo and Silver married in 1968.)

She went to Phoenix in 1966, adopted the name Donna Fargo, and recorded her first singles. Although they were not successful, the Academy of Country Music Awards named her the "Top New Female Vocalist" award in 1969. In 1972, Fargo recorded a single for the Decca label before achieving her breakthrough later that year.

In 1972, one of Fargo's self-penned songs, "The Happiest Girl In the Whole USA" was picked up by Dot Records. At the time, she was one of the few female country singers to write her own material, and one of the few country singers to cross over to the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart in a big way, which she did in 1972 with "The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A" which hit #1 on the country music chart. An album of the same name was released following the song's success.

The album was certified gold by the R.I.A.A. in early 1973, selling over 500,000 copies.[1] The follow-up single, "Funny Face," also peaked at #1 on the country chart, and became a bigger pop hit than her previous single, peaking at #5. Both singles were certified gold by the end of the year.

Fargo never made the Top 40 in pop music again, but she placed over a dozen more singles in the country Top Ten in the 1970s, most written by herself. Fargo ultimately became the fifth most successful female country artist of the 1970s, according to Billboard Magazine, behind Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, and Lynn Anderson.

After several years without a full-length recording, in 1992, Fargo began work on her autobiography. In 2008, Fargo released a new single CD, "We Can Do Better In America."

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Since having left recording albums and singles, Fargo has since pursued other careers outside of the music business. She has since established a successful line of greeting cards in The Donna Fargo Collection through the Blue Mountain Arts Poets and Artists series.

She has also just finished another book. More recently, Fargo has released another series of poem books, including Trust in Yourself, To the Love of My Life, and Ten Golden Rules.

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