Carolina Cotton (October 20, 1925 – June 10, 1997) was an American singer and actress known as the "Yodeling Blonde Bombshell", the "Girl of the Golden West", and the "Queen of the Range."
Cotton was born Helen Hagstrom October 20, 1925 in Cash, Arkansas, to a farming family who moved to San Francisco during the Great Depression.
[3] Martin gave her her nickname "Carolina" because he reckoned that Arkansas was not so well recognized in California[4] The surname "Cotton" came later thanks to fans and a radio disc jockey named Cottonseed Clark.
Columbia signed her as an actress, and she appeared opposite the studio's cowboy stars Ken Curtis, Gene Autry, and Charles Starrett.
She retired from Mount Vernon Elementary School in Bakersfield, California, in early 1997, and died in June, after battling ovarian cancer for three years.