![]() It was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. Out in the distance, a lightning storm flashed in all directions, making not a sound. “Two hours beyond sunset, after our marriage vows had been spoken, Connie and I went up on a hill to dance with the wind. “Marrying Connie is, without question, the greatest event of my life,” Marty Stuart recalls in his 2019 picture book The Pilgrim: a Wall-To-Wall Odyssey. Marty Stuart and Connie Smith were married on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in a traditional Lakota ceremony presided over by a holy man named Marvin Helper on July 8th, 1997. As they wrote songs together, they started to fall in love. They met at a music industry event in 1994, where Marty presented himself as a producer and co-writer for Connie. #Are connie smith and marty stuart still married free#So finally in the mid 90s, both Connie Smith and Marty Stuart were free agents, and at the same time, and when Marty was of marrying age. He later joined Johnny Cash’s band in 1980, and by 1983, he was married to Cash’s daughter and fellow performer Cindy Cash. After meeting Roland White, Marty was hired to play in the backing band of Lester Flatt by 1972, who he played with until 1978 when Flatt retired. A year after meeting Connie, he was already getting involved in country music himself, playing guitar and mandolin by the age of 12, and performing with the Gospel band The Sullivans. Meanwhile, Marty Stuart wasn’t exactly waiting around for Connie. ![]() This third marriage of Connie Smith lasted into the 90s, but eventually ended as well, with Connie swearing she would never marry again. She shortly married a telephone repairman, and the couple had three daughters. Connie was a free woman when Marty first saw her in Philadelphia, Mississippi in the summer of 1970, though not for long. It was after this marriage that Connie could officially go as “Miss Smith” on the album cover that Marty Stuart initially became so enamored with. The couple had a son in 1963, but they divorced in the mid 60s, and Connie married her touring guitarist, Jack Watkins, and had her second son, but the couple also separated about a year after marriage. This is where her “Smith” name comes from. In 1961, Connie Smith married her first husband, Jerry Smith. What makes it miraculous is not just that Marty Stuart’s prediction as an 11-year-old came true, but the twists and turns both Marty Stuart’s and Connie Smith’s life took before that prediction was fulfilled. Quite miraculously, 27 years later, on July 8th, 1997-25 years ago today-Marty Stuart did marry Connie Smith. But on the way back home from the show, Marty Stuart swore to his mother that he was going to marry Connie Smith someday.Ĭ onnie Smith, 11-year-old Marty Stuart in his yellow shirt, and sister Jennifer. As for Connie, it was just an interaction with some goofy kid who was a fan, and she didn’t particularly recall Marty. The first picture I remember taking in my life, and it was of Connie,” Stuart says. “I must have put it right on her nose, because it was really close up. An avid photographer later in life, Marty rushed over to a car where Connie was seated, and asked if he could take her picture. Afterwards, right as Connie was getting ready to leave, Marty asked his mother if he could borrow her camera. After the show, Marty Stuart got his picture taken with Connie, and also got her autograph. On that Saturday, Marty’s mother took him and Marty’s sister Jennifer to see Connie, and according to Marty, it was love at first sight. ![]() ![]() Why a yellow shirt? Because Marty Stuart wanted Connie Smith to notice him in the crowd that would assemble on the Choctaw High School football field for the performance. ![]() He asked his mother to buy him a yellow shirt for the event. So before Marty Stuart had even seen Connie Smith, he’d already developed a crush, and a magical connection to her to the point when she was booked to perform at the annual Choctaw Fair in Stuart’s hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi in the summer of 1970, Marty was counting down the days. ![]()
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