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Maybelle Carter on the cover of Wildwood Pickin' (1997)

Maybelle Carter (May 10, 1909 – October 23, 1978) was an American country musician.

She was born Maybelle Addington in Nickelsville, Virginia, the daughter of Hugh Jackson Addington and Margaret S. Kilgore.

On March 13, 1926, Maybelle married Ezra J. Carter. They had three daughters, Helen, Valerie June (better known as June Carter Cash), and Anita.

She was a member of the original Carter Family, which was formed in 1927 by her brother-in-law, A. P. Carter, who was married to her cousin, Sara, also a part of the trio. It was perhaps the first commercial rural Country music group. Maybelle was the guitarist and also played autoharp and banjo; she created a unique sound for the group with her innovative 'scratch' style of guitar playing, where she used her thumb to play melody on the bass and middle strings, and her index finger to fill out the rhythm. Some have singled out the work of family friend Lesley Riddle as the inspiration for this technique.

She was widely respected and loved by the Grand Ole Opry community of the early 1950s, and was popularly known as "Mother Maybelle." Maybelle and her daughters toured during the 1950s and 1960s as "Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters." Maybelle also briefly toured with former Carter Family member, Sara Carter, during the 1960s folk music craze. She was featured on The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1972 recording Will the Circle Be Unbroken.

Maybelle Carter is interred in Hendersonville Memory Gardens, Hendersonville, Tennessee.

In 1993, her image appeared on a U.S. postage stamp honoring the Carter Family. In 2001 she was initiated into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor. In 2005, she was portrayed by Sandra Ellis Lafferty in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line.

• Carter Family

• Will you miss me when I'm gone? : the Carter Family and their legacy in American music, Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg, New York, Simon & Schuster, 2002