Hollywood's Prairie Songbird: Miss Ketty Lester and Her "Love Letters" from the "Little House"

"Little House on the Prairie"'s Hester Sue was an early '60s recording artist!

The generation of folks who grew up watching Little House on the Prairie likely has no clue that one of the cast members was a successful singer in an earlier decade! And, those people who may have bought Ketty Lester’s records may have no idea that she had a major role in an iconic TV show!

I think it’s time to bring the two generations together!

The cover of her 2020 autobiography says it all: “From Arkansas to Grammy-nominated ‘Love Letters’ to ‘Little House on the Prairie.’”

The Game of the Name

Revoyda Frierson was born in 1934, one of fifteen children, on a farm in Hope, Arkansas. She began her singing as a young child, first in church, and then in school choirs.

Not a fan of her given name, and tired of people saying, “What?!” in reply to her first name, she promised herself a new name after the first person at college said, “What?” at the mention of “Revoyda.”

After graduating salutatorian of her high school, she won a music scholarship to Philander Smith College in Little Rock, but instead, chose to go with her sister and brother to San Francisco at age 17. She enrolled at San Francisco City College in 1955, majoring in nursing, until that one class which featured dissection of a deceased human body!

Sure enough, it was on her first day at SFCC that a young man replied, “What?” when telling him her name. She immediately thought of “Kitty,” but misspelled it as “Ketty,” and it stuck.

Going Pro

Needing a job, as well as a career Plan B after that fateful anatomy class, Lester applied for work at the local post office, a few places downtown, and at the shipyards, and got turned down at each.

One of the owners of a new club, The Purple Onion, having once heard her singing in a show choir at the University of California, Berkeley, gave her his card “should she decide to ‘go pro.’”

“I don’t know what it means to ‘go pro,’” she told him, “but I need a job!”

The Purple Onion, the early days. 📸The Chet Helms Chronicles

It was while performing at The Purple Onion that comedic actress/recording artist, Dorothy Shay, told her she thought “Ketty Frierson” was too long for a theatre marquee, suggesting “Lester” as a new last name.

Her stint at The Onion soon led to a move down the state to the exclusive Ye Little Club in Beverly Hills (aka “the Legend of Old Hollywood” at 455 N. Canon Drive in Beverly Hills), where she became a favorite of the many celebrities who frequented there, including Sammy Davis Jr., Rosemary Clooney, and Groucho Marx.

She would also share the Ye Little Club stage with women who would go on to break barriers and become “firsts” in their field like Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers, and Maya Angelou.

Comedienne Joan Rivers performing at Beverly Hills’ Ye Little Club (ca. 1960s), which closed its doors in 1978. It was just two years later that I complimented longtime TV talk show host, Virginia Graham, on her vintage Caddy as we pulled up together at a Beverly Hills stop light, heading west on Sunset. “Thank you!” she chirped. “It’s a classic, but I like jazz! I’m on my way to lunch at Joanie Rivers’ house now!” Ah, Hollywood! 📸Los Angeles Herald Examiner

Meeting Groucho one evening backstage led to her appearance on Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life the day after Christmas, 1957. No footage remains of the song she sang on the show, Cole Porter’s chestnut, “You Do Something to Me,” but a brief segment of her opening chatter with Groucho (and a male contestant) clearly shows her love affair with the camera, as well as revealing her charm, poise and charisma:

The Cab Tour + Her Surprise Charge Up the Charts

One day, according to her official bio, she was invited to a little jam session, a rehearsal of sorts, to lay down a few tracks in an old garage in LA. She was basically cajoled into doing it, and had a blast doing it. Then, she shrugged her shoulders, walked away, and thought nothing more about it until much later.

It was old friend, Dorothy Shay, who also brought Ketty to New York where she began singing and acting with more purpose. She met the legendary Cab Calloway, whom she joined for a time as opening act on his tour of the US and Europe.

Lester’s first official recording experience came shortly thereafter, in 1962, with a non-charting single called “Queen For a Day” for Long Island-based Everest Records.

Shay introduced Ketty to record producers and songwriters Ed Cobb (who wrote “Dirty Water” for The Standells, and “Tainted Love” covered by Gloria Jones and Soft Cell) of The Four Preps vocal group, and pianist, Lincoln Mayorga, of The Piltdown Men (a studio instrumental group signed to Capitol), who helped her secure a contract with Era Records in Los Angeles.

Upon Ketty’s return from the Calloway tour, she was told that the little song she had sung in that nondescript California garage was now number 32 in Boston, and even climbing the charts in the UK! She wasn't even aware she had a record out!

That song, “Love Letters” (Era Records, written in 1945 by Edward Heyman and Victor Young, was originally sung by Dick Haymes; Elvis Presley recorded it twice: Once in 1966, and again in 1970) would become a number five hit (on the Billboard Hot 100 chart) in 1962, and the signature piece that drove her career.

“Love Letters” originally appeared as the B-side to “I’m a Fool to Want You,” but radio flipped it after strong phones forced “Love Letters” to the surface, followed by heavy rotation that drove it up the charts.

The record also reached #2 on the US R&B chart, as well as #4 on the UK Singles Chart, selling over a million copies, was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), and was nominated for a Grammy.

In 1991, “Love Letters” was ranked 176th in the RIAA-compiled list of Songs of the Century:

Produced by Cobb and arranged and conducted by Mayorga, Love Letters, the album (above) was also released in 1962. To help support the album in the UK, she toured as a support act for The Everly Brothers.

Over the years (mostly in the 1960s, though), Lester recorded over a dozen-and-a-half singles, and released eight LPs, including two for RCA Victor in the mid-’60s, a live album in 1977, and a “Best of” collection in 1982.

But, like most single singers (male and female alike), Lester’s record sales, radio play, and overall relevance in the record biz took a severe blow with the onslaught of Beatlemania in early 1964!

Suddenly, single performers who depended on outside songwriters to feed their insatiable appetite for material to record and fill concert set-lists with, were pushed to the curb, and summarily supplanted by self-contained rock bands who now monopolized the airwaves and magazine pages.

Sensing the need to switch career gears (if not completely re-invent herself), Lester gave up singing commercially and turned to acting in the early 1970s. Reportedly, she was offered the role eventually won by Diahann Carroll in the ground-breaking TV series Julia (1968-71).

She also appeared in a variety of movies, including 1968’s Uptight, one of the first “blaxploitation” movies, Blacula (1972), Uptown Saturday Night (1974, with Richard Pryor, Harry Belafonte, and Sidney Poitier) and the Jack Lemmon/Anne Bancroft starring vehicle, The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975).

Lester established herself as a television actress in the 1970s and 1980s, playing the role of Helen Grant on the daytime soap mainstay, Days of Our Lives (1975–77).

In 1977, Lester reported to MGM Studios Stage 15 in Culver City (above) to begin her role as Hester Sue Terhune (below) for Season 5 on Little House on the Prairie. She played a school teacher at the school for the blind until the series ended in 1983.

Happy Birthday, Miss Ketty!

Miss Ketty turns 88 August 16, but she’ll be celebrating early with a live performance in Hollywood, Sunday, the 14th! She’ll also be celebrating “Love Letters” turning 60!