Early Years
Rosan Gallimore was born December 26, 1941. She was raised near Puryear, Tennessee on a cotton and tobacco farm. Her great-great-grandmother was Cherokee, a tribe which considered the rattlesnake a symbol of healing. As a child, Rattlesnake had no fear of snakes, and her grandmother often called her "rattlesnake".
Rattlesnake's father had been a country and blues singer, and she was learned to play guitar at an early age. She earned her first paycheck from singing at age 8, and from then on her goal in life was to earn a living while making music. When she was 12, Rattlesnake and two of her cousins formed a band called the Gallimore Sisters. They performed locally and won a statewide talent contest in 1954 landing them an appearance in Nashville on the Jr. Grand Ole Opry and a live television performance.
At age 16, Rattlesnake moved to Memphis and then on to Huntsville, Alabama. In the early 1960s she moved to Texas, where she met and married Max McGowan. The couple purchased 200 acres (81 ha) of land along the Brazos River. The land had never been cleared or lived on.
Read more about this topic: Rattlesnake Annie
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