“She’s the ‘First Lady of Huntin’’ / Ain’t nobody take her place.
She’s the first woman / To put ladies in the huntin’ race.”
You know you’ve made it when you get a song written about you or a sculpture made of your likeness. With the popularity of the Internet, it’s probably a better bet that more folks will hear a song than see a sculpture.
Country Western singer/songwriter Randall Haley recently wrote a song – “The First Lady of Hunting” – about Brenda Valentine (aka “The First Lady of Hunting™) and recorded it on the soon-to-be-released album Guns and Bibles. In the song, he details Brenda’s rise to hunting fame, including a little about this gal’s humble beginnings and a lot about her sincerity.
Randall Haley
In fact, Randall said he knows Brenda’s background because he also is from Tennessee and an avid outdoorsman from Cannon County. In a phone interview, he said, “I know where she grew up and I heard about her when she competed in archery back there in the 1970s. And some of those old boys, they didn’t really want her in the game, and said things like ‘I ain’t going to shoot with no woman.’” He said he met her just a few months ago at a National Wild Turkey Federation function, for which Brenda is national spokesperson, along with Michael Waddell. About a month ago, Brenda and Randall judged a barbecue competition in her hometown.
About Randall’s song, Brenda said, “One day, just out of the blue, I got a phone call from a guy I’d met only a couple of times asking if he could get permission to use my name. After he explained that he’d had a song come to him I of course told him to do whatever he wanted with my name and trademark.” Randall then called Brenda, who is on the road hunting several months out of the year, and left parts of the song on her voicemail. She said, “Even from that I got pretty choked up. Randall heard most of my story and background from Jerry Martin and a few other old friends. He then read my book and later said he just knew it was a story that needed singing.”
Photo courtesy of Brendavalentine.com.
She added, “I’m extremely humbled by the whole deal and feel very honored to be recognized like that from someone I hardly knew. Randall and his wife, Gloria, paid us a visit a few weeks ago and she brought me the original big piece of cardboard where she had copied the lyrics for his prompt during the recording session. What a treasure.”
She continued, “The Haleys are just plain good ol’ country people who look for the good in everything.”
And this is just another little feel good story about people connecting because of their love for the outdoors. Congrats, Brenda, on having a song “writ” about you, and congrats to the Valentines and the Haleys on their newfound friendship. You can order the CD here.
~Barbara Baird
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Publisher/Editor Barbara Baird is a freelance writer in hunting, shooting and outdoor markets. Her bylines are found at several top hunting and shooting publications. She also is a travel writer, and you can follow her at https://www.ozarkian.com. View all posts by Barbara Baird
Fantastic and as always, fun to read. Love you sister.
well congrats to ms valentine and to the haleys its a great idea and randall will do it great,him and his whole family are great people, the world needs alot more haleys good job randall keep on going lets go to the river love yall always tater