In 1991, for her contributions to Country Music, Stafford received a ceremonial Key to the City of Nashville, awarded by the Tennessee Governor Ned McWherter.

Stafford also received honorary Tennessean citizenship, awarded in recognition of her significant and outstanding service to country music.

[1] Stafford was a regular guest on "Midday" a popular Australian television program on the Nine Network hosted by Ray Martin during the 1980s and 1990s with over 40 performances.

[citation needed] In 1962, at the age of 12, Stafford made her first television appearance on a program called ShowTime a popular series from TNT-9 Launceston, Tasmania at that time.

[3] After leaving school in Meander, Stafford worked at a hotel as a kitchen hand in a nearby town of Deloraine, Tasmania, while performing at local dances on weekends, she began to learn her craft as a professional singer.

[citation needed] Stafford began her recording career in 1965, teaming up with Australian country music pioneer Dusty Rankin.

In 1970, Stafford recorded two tracks on a special mixed artists L.P. (Country Music Around Australia Volume 1) with Hadley “The Hands You’re Holding Now” and “I Thought Of You”.

[3] In 1973, Stafford won first prize in a Country Music Talent contest in Launceston and with this received a five-album deal with Hadley Records.

Stafford's final album under the EMI Music Australia deal was Burning Bright, co-produced by Rod Coe and released in 1986.

The duo recorded Wells' 1952 hit "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" as a single and later released on compilation album as The Queens of Country Music.

[3] In 2004, Stafford produced her eleventh studio album Let the Dance Begin, co-produced with Jimmie Crawford in Nashville,[3] her first commercial release in over a decade.

On 12 June 2023, Stafford received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the King's Birthday Honours for her "service to the performing arts".

At the APRA Music Awards of 1987, Stafford was one of the vocalist in the Australian Supergroup line-up "Australia Too" the song The Garden won Most Performed Australasian Country Work.