R.I.P.: Pioneering WLW Performer Bonnie Lou

Bonnie Lou

Iconic Cincinnati entertainer Bonnie Lou died Tuesday.

She was 91, according to cincinnati.com.

For decades, Ms. Lou starred as a local TV personality on NBC's Channel 5, on nationally syndicated TV shows and in the hundreds of country music records she recorded in the Queen City.

Born Mary Joan Kath in Towanda, Illinois, Ms. Lou began playing the violin and guitar as a child. By age 16, she was singing and performing on local radio stations in the Midwest. Her big break came a year later when she was signed to a contract to perform on a barn dance show, the Brush Creek Follies. She was known as Sally Carson and her group was The Rhythm Rangers. The show was broadcast nationwide.

She arrived in Cincinnati at age 20 as Mary Joan Ewins. She signed on at WLW-AM radio to fill the station's need for a "girl yodeler," according to  Enquirer archives.

Known for her yodeling, she later was dubbed Bonnie Lou and was featured on a show that became the Midwestern Hayride, a country and western radio program on WLW. This led to tours and eventually several performances at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.



Lou was a popular radio performer through the 1940s. She also hosted Six Star Ranch, a WLW radio show that was transmitted nationwide, and in the 1980s she hosted a weekend country music show in Middletown for a few years.

She performed in public occasionally into her 80s. Her last public performance was in 2006