At the Burton Roadhouse building on North Railroad Street in Burtonâa town of nearly three hundred just off U.S. 290 between Austin and Houstonâthere was a party the other night to celebrate the seventy-seventh birthday of country singer Jeannie C. Riley, who lives in nearby Brenham. Like many of the guests who packed the rambling, historic, cement-floored building, a Burton resident named Susan Luikens went up to Riley at one point in the evening and asked her to sign a CD of Harper Valley P.T.A. Â
The albumâs title song, released in 1968, was a huge crossover hit for the West Texasâborn Riley, jump-starting her country music career and becoming a cultural touchstone for its in-your-face manifesto criticizing the Establishmentâs sexism and double standards. Written by the legendary songwriter Tom T. Hall, âHarper Valley P.T.A.â tells the story of a miniskirted young widow who lashes out at the hypocrisy of a parent-teacher association thatâs accused her of loose morals, despite the PTA membersâ own scandalous ways.
âMy mom was so into music, all the country albums,â Luikens recalled of her days growing up in Kansas and elsewhere. âThe first time I heard her play âHarper Valley P.T.A.,â I went out the next day and bought a pair of go-go boots and a miniskirt, and I would impersonateâ Riley. She was so inspired by Riley, in fact, she said she went on to sing for years in âlittle town showsâ and at church.
Luikens was one of about 150 guests at the party for Jeannie C., as sheâs known around these parts. The event was organized by Allison Crowson, an impresario in traditional country music who founded Brenhamâs Bluebonnet Opry in 1998. Crowson had already booked classic country singer Tony Booth, a 79-year-old Manvel-area resident, to perform at her cozy White Horse Tavern in Burton on October 19. But when she realized that was also Rileyâs birthday, she decided to combine the show and the party and rent the Roadhouse buildingâitâs been vacant since 2020âfor one night to accommodate a larger crowd.
Crowson and her small tavern staff spent a day and a half hauling supplies for the evening around the corner to the building, while Juanita Guajardoâwho provides Juanitaâs Tacos six days a week at the White Horseâprepared a dinner of enchiladas, rice, and salad for the guests, who ponied up $30 a person for tickets to the event. Each of the roomâs fifteen tables had lit candles and red-and-white-checkered tablecloths, and space was left in front of the raised bandstand for couples to dance.
The roughly three-hour gathering, a model of small-town Texas conviviality, drew an older, mostly Anglo crowd of classic country music fans from places as far away as Brady and Pearland. The band backing Booth, whose big seventies hits were âThe Keyâs in the Mailboxâ and âLonesome 7-7203,â included members of the Rocky King C&W swing band as well as Steve Palousek, a renowned steel guitarist who played with such country icons as Gary Stewart and Wood Countyâborn Ray Price.
Agnes and David Gerland, who drove over from San Marcos, brought along their neighbor Inger Pereira, who said she used to see Booth at Los Angelesâ famed Palomino Club, where he fronted the house band in the late sixties and early seventies. Jeannie C. showed up with her second husband and childhood sweetheart, Billy Starnes, and her longtime friend Skeeter Bryan, from New Caney; all three grew up in Anson, north of Abilene. One guest stopped to ask Riley to autograph a CD and exclaimed, âI might put that one on the wall, in a box!â Others filed respectfully past the singerâs table and dropped off birthday cards.
In contrast to the sexy, Swinging Sixties image she projected during her âHarper Valleyâ heydayâthatâs when I first saw her perform, at a nightclub in Scottsdale, ArizonaâJeannie C. appears these days like a sweet, pious, down-to-earth grandmother, with short, high-feathered hair and a self-deprecating sense of humor. Watching the stick-thin, Sabinal-born C&W star Johnny Rodriguez sing at the Llano Country Opry a few years ago, she whispered, âI wish heâd give me slimness lessons.â Sheâs declined for several years to sing in public herself, ever since she says a thyroid surgery wound up injuring her vocal cords.
Rileyâs recording of âHarper Valley P.T.A.â for Shelby Singletonâs Plantation Records was the first by a female artist to reach number one on both the pop and country charts. She became a national phenomenon almost overnight, racking up top music awards for the song and going on to enjoy a string of country hits in the years that followed. Earlier this year, a remastered version of the Harper Valley P.T.A. vinyl LP was released by Sun Records, which the late Singleton acquired in 1969.
But during an interview last month at her unpretentious home in southwest Brenham, Riley said she originally didnât want to record âHarper Valley P.T.A.,â having listened to a demo tape that made the song sound like a plodding, tepid imitation of Bobbie Gentryâs 1967 hit, âOde to Billie Joe.â She was also angry that Singleton wanted to change her professional name to Rhonda RenaeââI thought that sounded like a pole dancer,â she saidâand that some friends were pressuring her to sign a three-year contract with the label owner in exchange for recording âHarper Valley P.T.A.,â since theyâd written what would be the recordâs B side.
âI was mad at my friends for puttinâ me on the spot, I was mad at myself for not being able to say no, and I was mad at some other things,â Riley told me. âAll that anger came out in the song. I just opened my mouth and let it rip. I sassed everybody I was mad at. And thatâs why it came out like that.â  Â
Riley also said she bristled for years at the sexist typecasting she endured from Singleton. Although âHarper Valley P.T.A.â is actually narrated by the junior-high-school-age daughter of âMrs. Johnson,â the miniskirted widow who gives the P.T.A. what for, Singleton insisted that Riley appear in public as the mother character, complete with go-go boots and the short skirt. âHe told me, âIt doesnât matter where you are; this is your imageâthis is who you are. If youâre in an airplane, or in a supermarket, if youâre in church, you need to be in a miniskirt, âcause thatâs who you are.â Well, why? I was the little girl who brought the note home. But I was made to be the mother and expected to be.â
It wasnât until she became a born-again Christian in 1972 and later started recording gospel music that she got up the courage to take more control of her careerâand her wardrobe, Riley said. âI got Jesus in my heart. Suddenly I had a reason and conviction.â After that, her skirt length âgrew an inch at a timeâ over a year or two, until she could finally dress onstage like the traditional country stars Kitty Wells and Loretta Lynn, as sheâd always wanted to.
The party in Burton kicked off with a prayer by CrowsonââWe thank you for puttinâ Jeannie C. Riley on this earth, and for her seventy-some-odd years of glorious life,â she saidâfollowed by a long set of honky-tonk classics by Booth. âWeâve got a lot of requests,â he quipped between tunes, âand a couple of âem are for songs.â
After Booth, the audience heard a recap of Rileyâs career by the eveningâs emcee, Tracy Pitcox, a radio deejay whoâs single-handedly put Brady on the map as a hub of traditional country music. Crowson, who is also a singer, followed Pitcox with a lively, crowd-pleasing version of âHarper Valley P.T.A.â
When the tune was over, a woman near Rileyâs table smiled at Jeannie C. and made an extravagant, two-armed bowing motion. Then the singer slowly made her way to the front of the room and accepted the handheld mic, and an invitation to speak, from Crowson.
âIâm glad you asked me to address the crowd, instead of undress the crowd,â Riley said, drawing the first of multiple laughs. âââCause for years, people wanted to undress me. When Iâd go onstage and my dress had grown to the floor, theyâd scream out, âWhereâs the miniskirt?â And I would think, âAre you not satisfied to hear me sing? Did you come to see my legs, or to hear me?â
âFinally people accepted the fact that I was just an old-fashioned girl who finally found herself back at home, in her own clothing,â she continued. Then she added: âTonight Iâm not wearinâ a miniskirt because my legs have got too many varicose veins!â
Earlier, at her home, Riley said, âI am who I am because of âHarper Valley P.T.A.,âââ even as she admitted to still-conflicted feelings about the hit that put her on the map. âItâs definitely my signature songâmy sermon against hypocrisy,â she said. âBut I have to think about that when I sing it. Anytime I point my finger at somebody else, Iâve got three more pointed back at myself, and I donât measure up. So, Iâll just try to learn from my own song.â