Cynthia May Carver longed for a life beyond her impoverished and often tragic upbringing.

She found her way out through music, adopting the stage name Cousin Emmy, and never looked back.

During the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, Cousin Emmy was a pioneer of country music, blazing the trail for future stars like Tanya Tucker, Dolly Parton, and Reba McEntire.

Let's meet her.

♪ Like a plea ♪ Oh it's my life, let me live it like a plea ♪ That's the way that I feel Cousin Emmy was a Kentucky-born legend, a musical legend.

She was a very prolific musician, known for the banjo, got her face on the cover of Time magazine, and you know, how do you accomplish that as a woman in a business that was run by men in the 1930s, ‘40s, and '50s?

That's a very powerful artist.

This glamorous photo of Cousin Emmy seems a long way from her hardscrabble upbringing near the tiny community of Lamb, Kentucky.

[music playing] Cynthia May Carver was born in 1903 into a sharecropping family with a history of both musical talent and violence.

Though her mother fled with her children when Cynthia was a child, her father's influence seemed to follow Cousin Emmy throughout her career.

Henry Carver was a very talented musician, but not a very nice man.

He was a sharecropper, and he killed the landowner back in the mid-1870s, and so he was always on the run from the law.

From an early age, Cynthia was determined to escape the poverty and trouble that marked her childhood, and on a fateful afternoon in Glasgow, she found her way out.

She would say that she first heard the radio in a general store in Glasgow, Kentucky, and she knew right then that was going to be her escape.

She said, “I knew I could get out then, because she loved to perform.” ♪ I'm goin' down this road feelin' bad, ♪ Lord, I'm goin' down this road feelin' bad.

♪ I'm goin' down this road feelin' bad, Lord, Lord.

♪ And I ain't gonna be treated this a-way.

And Cousin Emmy's ability to perform always started with her incredible and influential musicianship.

Musically, Cousin Emmy was brilliant.

She was an icon.

Like I said, she's played well over 15 instruments, including the saxophone.

She was the first woman to win the National Fiddlers Contest.

The influence that Cousin Emmy has had throughout the course of country music cannot be overstated.

Maybe the most obvious place to think in the beginning is she taught Grandpa Jones to play the clawhammer banjo, which became such a hallmark of his career.

It's where the hand essentially is in the shape of a claw, and you're striking the strings, and what's interesting about it is that you not only play the melody, but you also can accompany yourself with rhythm.

Armed with her banjo and a folksy persona, Cousin Emmy found success playing on the radio and at barn dances across the Midwest, but always in a supporting role.

That's until she took matters into her own hands and landed her first gig as a headliner at WHAS in Louisville.

The manager there, Joe Eaton, he kept saying, “Yeah, I'll call you, I'll call you,” but he never did.

So she talked the janitor into letting her in the building.

She went into his office, and not only into his office, she went into his private restroom.

And as soon as he came in, and I guess he got over the fright, he said, “Well, girl, you got some gumption, so I'm gonna give you a job.” And that's how she got her first radio job.

And with that bold move, she made her childhood dream come true.

Radio was entering its golden age, and it was the perfect vehicle for Cousin Emmy.

It allowed artists to become stars because they had reach that they had never had before.

You could be on the radio in Atlanta, Georgia, and have reach for a hundreds or thousands of miles.

All that exposure through radio and personal appearances brought success, and for Cousin Emmy, the trappings of success were a powerful motivator.

She loved the finest of clothes, loved that jewelry, always drove a Cadillac, you know, sometimes had two of them to carry everyone, so that just meant so much for her to have those trappings of material life to show that she had made a success.

Cousin Emmy's desire for immediate financial gains kept her focus on radio and personal appearances.

She found short-term success at stations like KMOX in St.

Louis and WHAS in Louisville but her biggest payday came by selling the rights to a now-famous song called Ruby.

[music playing] She was so happy, she said that, “I didn't like that song at all, but it gave me the most money."

She said she made $7,000 on that in royalties, and that equates to over $50,000 in today's money.

Ruby was a monster hit for the Osborne Brothers, and it stands as an all-time bluegrass classic.

Its timeless appeal is a testament to the talent and moxie of the little girl from Lamb who dared to dream big.

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