Suzy Bogguss

Susan Kay "Suzy" Bogguss (born December 30, 1956) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Bogguss began her career in the early 1980s as a solo singer. In the 1990s, she released one platinum and three gold albums and charted six top ten singles, winning the Academy of Country Music's award for Top New Female Vocalist and the Country Music Association's Horizon Award.

After taking a brief recording hiatus in the mid-1990s to start a family with her husband, songwriter Doug Crider, Bogguss returned to the country music industry, but did not match her earlier chart success. Although she last appeared on the Billboard Hot Country Singles Chart in 2001, Bogguss continues to record and tour extensively.

Early life and rise to success

Susan Kay Bogguss was born in Aledo, Illinois, the youngest of four born to Barbara "B.J." (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Bogguss. Charles was an Army officer who served in the Pacific Ocean theatre of World War II, and later became a machinist who worked at an International Harvester plant at East Moline. B.J. was a secretary-auditor for a Midwest grocery chain. Her grandmothers played piano at theaters. At age 5, she began singing in the Angel Choir of the College Avenue Presbyterian Church in her hometown. With her parents' encouragement, she took lessons in piano and drums, and as a teenager picked up the guitar as well. In her youth, Bogguss would visit Roy Rogers and Dale Evans at their home in Apple Valley, California, as they attended the same church as her grandparents. She starred in several musicals at Aledo High School, where she was crowned homecoming queen during her fourth year. After graduating in 1975, she enrolled at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, but later transferred to Illinois State University (ISU) in Normal. She graduated from ISU in 1980 with a bachelor's degree in metalsmithing. She would later use these skills to design her own jewelry.