Wilma Burgess (born Wilma Charlene Burgess; June 11, 1939 – August 26, 2003) was an American country music singer. She rose to fame in the mid-1960s and charted fifteen singles on the Billboard C&W charts between 1965 and 1975. She enjoyed a clutch of country hits during the latter part of the 1960s before abruptly retiring from the music business. The possessor of a warm and appealing voice, she was an underrated song stylist who was at her best when handling romantic ballads, most notably her soulful rendition of Bob Montgomery's "Misty Blue" (1967).
A native of Orlando, Florida, she had little interest in country music until, as a student in the 1950s, she attended an Eddy Arnold concert and found herself drawn to the emotional honesty of his performance. In 1960 she completed her studies at Stetson
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University, in DeLand, Florida, where she had majored in physical education, and travelled to Nashville at the suggestion of a songwriter friend who believed that her vocal talents would help sell his songs to the city's music publishers.
One of these publishers, Charlie Lamb, of Sound Format, was impressed by her voice and introduced her to one of the creators of the famed "Nashville Sound", the producer Owen Bradley. In 1962 she cut a double-sided single, "Confused" / "Something Tells Me", for United Artists, but it made little impact on the charts.
In 1965 Burgess purchased the Nashville home that had belonged to Patsy Cline; the purchase was made from Cline's widower Charlie Dick. Burgess had attended Cline's 30th birthday party and housewarming at the home six months before Cline's fatal accident. Burgess appeared in the 1966 film The Las Vegas Hillbillys singing "Baby". The film which starred Jayne Mansfield was a B-movie that showcased several top C&W performers. Burgess also purchased Jim Reeves' touring bus "Big Blue" in 1969.
In 1982 she ended her recording career with the album Could I Have This Dance on 51West a Columbia Records label. Later in the decade Burgess opened the Hitching Post - described as Nashville's first women-only bar - where she regularly performed. Burgess also worked on and off with Mary Reeves running the Jim Reeves Museum in Nashville.Unable to handle the pressures associated with the music business, Wilma Burgess retired during the mid-Seventies and eventually opened Nashville's first women-only bar. In 1993 she returned briefly to the spotlight when, having bought Patsy Cline's former home, she discovered rare tapes of the singer's early television appearances in her attic.
Wilma Burgess died unexpectedly Monday, August 26, 2003 at 4:05 a.m. at Centennial Medical Centre in Nashville, after suffering a massive heart attack. She was 64, and had been hospitalized for a week for tests, and had seemed to be on the road to recovery
(Edited from Wikipedia & Paul Wadey @ theIndependent)