Sara Carter (July 21, 1898 – January 8, 1979) was an American Country music musician. Known for her deep and distinctive singing voice, she was the lead singer on most of the recordings of the historic Carter Family act in the 1920s and 1930s.
She was born Sara Elizabeth Dougherty in Copper Creek, Virginia, (Rich Valley), the daughter of William Sevier Dougherty and Nancy Elizabeth Kilgore.
Sara married A. P. Carter on June 18, 1915, but they were later divorced in 1939. They had three children: Gladys (Millard), Janette (Jett), and Joe.
In 1927, she and A.P. began performing as the Carter Family, perhaps the first commercial rural Country music group. They were joined by her cousin, Maybelle, who was married to A.P.'s brother, Ezra Carter.
Sara later remarried to Coy Bays, A.P.'s first cousin, and moved to California in 1943, and the group disbanded. In the 1960s, Sara reunited with Maybelle and briefly toured during the folk music craze of the time. (See film clip here)
Sara was inducted as part of The Carter Family in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970 along with Bill Monroe.
In 1993, Sara's image appeared on a U.S. postage stamp honoring the Carter Family. In 2001 she was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor.
On her 2008 album All I Intended to Be, Emmylou Harris includes the song, "How She Could Sing the Wildwood Flower", co-written with Kate and Anna McGarrigle, about the relationship between Sara and A.P., inspired by a documentary that the three of them saw on television.
Sara Carter is interred in the Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church graveyard in Hiltons, Virginia.[1]
   | See film clip here - YouTube - Maybelle & Sara Carter Cannonball Blues |
| | see a film clip here - YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. |
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