The Goree Girls, formally the Goree All Girl String Band, were women prisoners at the Goree State Farm for Women, south of Huntsville, who became one of the first all-female country and western bands in the United States. The idea came from Reable Childs, serving 25 years for conspiring to kill her husband, who had heard the prison radio show Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls on Fort Worth radio station WBAP. The band made its debut on July 10, 1940, at the Huntsville Unit, and its music went out over WBAP from the Wednesday night shows. Listeners across the country sent fan mail, gifts and marriage proposals. Childs played banjo and steel guitar. Mozelle McDaniel and Ruby Mae Morace sang lead, Georgia Fay Collins, Ruby Dell Guyton and Bonnie Scott played acoustic guitar, and Lillie Mae Dudley played bass fiddle.
Their convictions ranged from murder to robbery and cattle rustling, and most had no musical experience before prison. About three months after the debut, the prison system asked them to sing at intermissions of the Texas Prison Rodeo. Their songs included Way Out West in Texas and I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart.
Morace was paroled in the spring of 1942 and Childs in October 1943, after which Collins led the band. Interest faded as wartime programming filled the airwaves, and Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls ended in 1944. The band never made a record. The Goree farm, opened in 1911 and named for prison superintendent Thomas J. Goree, held the state's women prisoners until they were moved to Gatesville in the early 1980s, and it became a men's prison in 1982.
Getting there
30.6740, -95.5155
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop is an audio tour guide app that tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
