Lorrie Collins, of The Collins Kids, Dies at 76

Lorrie Collins of the influential 1950's rockabilly sibling duo The Collins Kids passed away at age 76 on August 4th, 2018. Larry Collins, her younger brother and band mate confirmed her death on his Facebook account with the following message:

“My sister Lorrie Collins Passed away on this day August 4 2018. She would want all of her loyal fans to know, God bless you my angelic beloved sister”.

The cause and place of death has not been released.

“Lorrie”, real name Lawrencine May Collins, was born May 7, 1942, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Larry followed two years later. Both were musically talented as young children and their parents left Oklahoma for Southern California to further develop their talents.

In the early 50's they became a brother/sister duo and started performing professionally as the Collins Kids. Lorrie played acoustic guitar with Larry playing electric guitar while they sang in harmony. In 1954, they took part in a talent contest for the "Town Hall Party" TV show in Los Angeles and were hired to perform the next day. They would go on the appear in more than 40 episodes.

In 1958 Lorrie was cast as the girlfriend of television star and teen idol Ricky Nelson on the popular "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet" TV show. They also briefly dated off screen. One of her appearances featured her singing a duet with Nelson of "Just Because" a popular song performed at Collins Kids concerts.

With the break out of rock n' roll Columbia Records signed the Collins Kids to try their hand in the new music genre. They released many singles such as “Hop, Skip and Jump,” “Beetle Bug Bop”, “Hoy Hoy” and the influential "Whistle Bait".  None of the songs were popular at the time and didn't make an impact on the Billboard chart. However, like many artists from the 50's, their records were later discovered by rockabilly fans in the 70's and 80's on rock n' roll compilation albums.

In 1959, at age 17 Lorrie married Stu Carnall, who was Johnny Cash's manager and twice her age. She gave birth to her first child two years later and then retired from recording. The Collins Kids would continue performing sporadically on the Nevada and California hotel/resort circuit for about ten years. Lorrie and Larry would then break up professionally and not perform again together until 1992 at a British rockabilly festival. Since then, the Collins Kids have performed all over the world in countries such as England, Spain, France, Italy and of course the USA.

Lorrie along with her brother are the 43rd and 44th inductees of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. She is regarded among the many females artists to have lead the way for the many female fronted rockabilly acts we currently have today in the rockin' scene.