Kitty Wells, 92, country singer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The singer Kitty Wells, 92, whose hits such as "Making Believe" and "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" made her the first female superstar of country music, died Monday.

Her family said she died peacefully at home after complications from a stroke.

Her solo recording career lasted from 1952 to the late 1970s. She made concert tours from the late 1930s until 2000.

"It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" in 1952 was the first No. 1 hit by a woman soloist on the country music charts and dashed the notion that women couldn't be headliners.

She recorded about 50 albums, had 25 Top 10 country hits, and went around the world several times. From 1953 to 1968, various polls listed Ms. Wells as the No. 1 female country singer. Tammy Wynette dethroned her.

In 1976, she was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, and 10 years later she received the Pioneer Award from the Academy of Country Music. In 1991, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which presents the Grammy Awards.

In 1989, Ms. Wells collaborated with Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, and k.d. lang on The Honky Tonk Angels Medley.

"I never really thought about being a pioneer," she said in an Associated Press interview in 2008. "I loved doing what I was doing."

Ellen Muriel Deason was born in Nashville, the daughter of a railroad brakeman. She began playing the guitar at 14 and soon was performing at dances in the Nashville area.

She married Johnny Wright, half of a duo called Johnny and Jack, in 1938 when she was not yet 20, and soon began touring with the duo. She took her stage name from an old folk song, "Sweet Kitty Wells." Wright died Sept. 27, 2011.

By the late '40s, they were appearing on the Grand Ole Opry. He performed with her throughout her career and their marriage.