Early Life and Rise To Fame
Ava Barber was born and reared in Knoxville, Tennessee. She grew up singing in her oldest brother's rock & roll band. Barber soon began listening to country music from listening to her father turning on the radio to a country music station every morning. Soon, every Saturday night, Barber would got to the radio station's "WNOX" auditorium, where the music show was performed. When she was 10 years old, Barber began singing professionally. By the time she was 14 she joined a country music television show, located in Knoxville. She soon began performing around the Knoxville area, and even recorded records for some local labels. Her mother was an avid fan of the popular television show at the time, The Lawrence Welk Show, and suggested that her daughter should write to him, because he always helped out young acts. Barber wrote to Welk in 1973, and he responded suggesting that if she ever was on the West Coast, she should perform on the show. About this same time, she married singer and musician Roger Sullivan.
Soon her husband made the call to the Lawrence Welk offices. Welk was actually in the office that day and suggested that they should meet him at a golf tournament. They met on the golf course, and in a small tent off the golf course Barber auditioned for his show (singing "(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden", a hit by another Welk show alum, Lynn Anderson), and she was soon on the show by February 1974.
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