![]() ![]() Lane scored three more hits the following year and in 1979 was named New Vocalist of the Year by the Academy of Country Music. That year she also made it to the Top Ten and the Top 20 with "Let Me Down Easy" and "Shake Me, I Rattle," respectively. He was tireless in promoting Lane's career, and his efforts were rewarded when the label's debut single, "Tryin' to Forget About You," and its follow-up, "Sweet Deceiver," made the charts in 1977. The reaction from established label executives ranged from indifference to sexual come-ons for Lane, and finally Stoller formed his own label, LS, in the mid-'70s. ![]() In 1972, the Stoller family moved to a Nashville suburb and continued its attempts to get Lane's career off the ground. Lane and Stoller returned to Peoria and opened a pair of nightclubs that featured Lane as the marquee attraction. She attempted to commit suicide twice in the late '60s, once after a difficult 1969 tour of Vietnam, organized by Stoller during which Lane performed 120 shows and was involved in a helicopter crash that left her stranded in the midst of a battle. Several early attempts to break into country music in Nashville came to nothing, and Lane struggled with the pressures of the performing career her husband was urging upon her. She took her stage name from that of a Peoria DJ, Chris Lane. After some tentative attempts, she landed several nightclub appearances and then a guest slot on Chicago's WLS Barn Dance radio program in 1968. Her husband, Lee Stoller, a salesman, encouraged her to sing professionally, but she was painfully shy. Married before she was 20, she had three children by 1964. Lane was born Eleanor Johnston to a family of 12 in Peoria, IL. She is also noteworthy as one of the builders of the Branson, MO, live-entertainment phenomenon. Cristy Lane is best remembered for her 1979 single "One Day at a Time," a gospel song that blended Protestant fervor with the language of self-help in a seamless, heartfelt whole. ![]()
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