Early life and career Ledford was born along the banks of the
Red River in rural
Powell County, Kentucky in 1917. They played up and down the Red River Gorge for various performances, such as square dances. Shortly after this appearance, she was recruited by John Lair for his new radio program,
Renfro Valley Barn Dance, which was initially broadcast from
Cincinnati and later moved to Mount Vernon. Ledford became the first musical figure to feature in their own comic strip called "Lily May, the Mountain Gal." It ran from October 1936 to August 1937 as a regular feature in the WLS radio magazine,
Standby.
Folk music revival and later career In the 1960s, musicologist
Ralph Rinzler rediscovered Ledford, and invited her to play at the
Newport Folk Festival in 1968. Delighted by the positive response she received from the folk music movement, Ledford became a regular at folk festivals across the U.S. and Canada, initially with her sisters, and then as a solo artist when her sisters were unable to join her. In 1971, she appeared at the "Man and His World Festival" in
Montreal, and she played at the
Smithsonian Folklife Festival in
Washington, D.C. the following year. In 1976, Ledford toured the Western U.S. and Canada with
Mike Seeger's Old-Time Music Festival. In 1979, while on tour with the
Red Clay Ramblers, Ledford recorded an album, ''Banjo Pickin' Girl'', that was released on the Greenhays label in 1983. Around the same period, she appeared at the
Mariposa Folk Festival in
Orillia. In the early 1980s, author
Loyal Jones interviewed Ledford extensively as part of research conducted with a grant from the
National Endowment for the Arts, and broadcast the interviews on
National Public Radio. In 1980,
Berea College published
Coon Creek Girl, an autobiography Ledford had written in the late 1970s. Ledford often discussed her opinion on selling her traditional music, and how it was distasteful to sell a musician's authenticity. Ledford's performance always related back to how she was raised, and often showed in performances. Promoting herself with her music and story grabbed people's curiosity from all over. Ledford stopped performing in 1983, when she was diagnosed with
lung cancer. Just before her death in 1985, she was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Ledford inspired a generation of younger folk musicians, including
Pete Seeger. ==Repertoire==