Hattie Louise "Tootsie" Bess

Hattie Louise "Tootsie" Bess. . Between 1960 and 1978, Hattie Louise "Tootsie" Bess was the proprietor of Tootsie's Orchid Lounge on Nashville's Lower Broadway. Under her stewardship it became a gathering place for country musicians and songwriters. Supportive during artists' lean periods and forgiving of their debts, she became a beloved figure within the music community., Probably born southwest of Hohenwald in or near Flatwoods on August 23, 1913, Hattie Louise Tatum moved with her family to Old Hickory, Tennessee, to all work at the DuPont Rayon mill. She first married in Hohenwald in 1931, and, by 1940, she was living with her two children and widowed mother in Lomax Crossroads, near Hohenwald. She returned to Nashville in the early 1940s., In Nashville, Hattie Louise met Grover ("Big Jeff") Bess, who worked in several country bands before starting his own, the Radio Playboys, around 1946. During the era of live morning radio, he was popular on WLAC. Hattie Louise, by then known as Tootsie, married Jeff and became the Playboys' on-stage comedian and de facto manager. One of the Playboys' singers, Harold Weakley, married Tootsie's daughter Willie-Ann., The first nightclub that Jeff and Tootsie operated, the Holiday Inn, opened in 1948 but flooded soon after. As live radio gave way to deejay shows, they increasingly focused on running clubs. Big Jeff's Country Club on Franklin Road was followed by several others, including Tootsie's Car Hop on the Clarksville Highway., In March 1960, Tootsie and Jeff took over the lease of a club, Mom's Place, on Nashville's Lower Broadway. An alley separated the back door of the bar from the stage door of the Ryman Auditorium. Many performers would cross the alley for a beer and sandwich. The closed off entertainers room was a tradition that Tootsie upheld. Performers and songwriters held jam sessions and song pulls there. In his 1970 book Country Music-White Man's Blues, author John Grissim wrote that Tootsie's was the "metaphysical center of all things C&W...[She] only opens the back door on Opry nights but, when she does, the Orchid Lounge becomes the embodiment of everything soulful that Country music ever stood for." Singer Bobby Bare said. "If they had dropped a bomb on Tootsie's, the music industry would've gone hungry for songs for a while.", The club name changed from Mom's Place to Tootsie's Place, and, finally, to Tootsie's Orchid Lounge after a decorator painted the exterior a vivid purple., A famously soft touch, Tootsie lent money, forgave bar bills, and offered sympathy and encouragement to a generations of songwriters and musicians, including Charley Pride, Kris Kristofferson, Roger Miller (who reportedly wrote "Dang Me" at Tootsie's), Tom T. Hall, Willie Nelson, and many more. Pride gave her a bejeweled hat pin to drive unwanted patrons off the premises. Kristofferson called Tootsie's "A home for homeless souls." Hall called her a finance company, booking agent and counselor. She began the tradition of covering the walls with photos of famous and would-be famous artists. The entertainers room's walls were covered in autographs., Business declined after the Grand Ole Opry moved to Opryland in March 1974. After Tootsie Bess died on Feb. 18. 1978, it declined still further. Later, though, Tootsie's became a focal point of Nashville's Lower Broadway renaissance.