Art&Seek presents This Week in Texas Music History. Every week, we’ll spotlight a different moment and the musician who made it. This week, Texas music scholar Gary Hartman introduces us to a performer who was a real force of nature.

You can also hear This Week in Texas Music History on Sunday at precisely 6:04 p.m. on KERA radio. But subscribe to the podcast so you won’t miss an episode. And our thanks to KUT public radio in Austin for helping us bring this segment to you. And if you’re a music lover, be sure to check out Track by Track, the bi-weekly podcast from Paul Slavens, host of KXT’s The Paul Slavens Show, heard Sunday night’s at 8.

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Actress and singer Gale Storm died on June 27, 2009. Storm was born Josephine Owaissa Cottle on April 5, 1922, in Bloomington, Texas. In 1939, she changed her name to Gale Storm after moving to California as the winner of a “Gateway to Hollywood” radio contest. She appeared in several movies but finally found stardom in the title role of the popular 1950s TV sitcom My Little Margie. The multi-talented Storm also launched a successful singing career when her first single, “I Hear You Knocking,” reached No. 2 on the Billboard charts.

As one of the most energetic and dynamic entertainers of the 1950s and 1960s, Gale Storm certainly lived up to her nickname.

Next time on This Week in Texas Music History, we’ll meet a songwriter who pleased audiences from London’s Café de Paris to the fans of the Houston Oilers.