‘Daddy-O’ singer Bonnie Lou dies

Bonnie Lou, a pioneering country music artist and rock ‘n’ roll singer, has died. She was 91.

Her husband, Milton Okum, says she died in a Cincinnati nursing home early Tuesday.

Born in Towanda, Illinois, Lou began singing on local radio stations in the Midwest at age 16. A year later she was part of a musical group that could be heard nationwide.

She had Top 10 country hits with Tennessee Wig Walk and Seven Lonely Days. Her first rock ‘n’ roll record, Daddy-O, rose to number 14 on the Billboard chart.

She later became co-host of a Cincinnati TV show and performed on the television version of a country and western show that boosted her career as a young radio singer.

Lou performed in public occasionally into her 80s.