As most of Janet's fans know, she took part in the first two awards shows in ACMA history (before they were televised, and when they were called "American Country and Western Music Awards").

 

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Says Janet: "The attachment [graphic above] is a page from the Academy of Country and Western Music's Program dated 2-28-1966. This program was given to me by Patsy Montana which spells out just how the Academy of Country Music came into being. At some point they dropped the word "Western."

Tommy Wiggins and the others named in this announcement are/were indeed the people who began the awards in 1963. I won one of the three Female Artist Awards in 1963." [italics the webmaster's]

 

Two of Janet's friends just took part in the 2012 celebration.

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LeAnn Rimes was a presenter on Sunday, April 1, and Mallary Hope performed in the ACM Experience concert on Saturday, March 31. Below is a photo of Mallary at that show, posted by Priscilla Jarvis on Twitter. Above is a picture of LeAnn and her husband Eddie Cibrian on the ACMAs red carpet, posted on her Facebook Fan account.

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Next is a photo of Janet at the 1964 show. You can see more about that occasion on the Hillbilly-Music.com Tommy Wiggins page here. Just scroll to about half-way down the page.

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Along with the following picture, Janet had this to say: "you've seen the photos before but just didn't get the full story that '1963' awards were the first 'Southern California Country Music Awards' given.

1964 same thing only had a different name. 1965 no awards and 1966 they had gathered some really big names like Gene Autry, etc. and changed it to the "Academy of Country and Western Music Awards."

And then before long they dropped 'Western' out of the title and it was as it remains today."

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-o-