Lorrie Collins

Lawrencine "Lorrie" Collins (born May 7, 1942) is a female country, rockabilly and rock and roll singer. Beginning in the mid-1950s, she and her brother, Larry Collins, performed as The Collins Kids.

Biography

In the late 1950s, Lorrie was the first girlfriend of television star and teen idol Ricky Nelson, on both the Nelson family's top-rated show The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet and in private life. She made her debut on January 22, 1958 in an episode entitled "The Picture in Rick's Notebook" in which she played the dual role of twin sisters (one being David Nelson's girlfriend and the other Ricky's potential paramour). In this first episode, Nelson and Lorrie duetted on "Just Because" which had been one of the Collins Kids' signature songs (Lorrie played her own guitar and covered the name "Collins" on the neck with her left hand). A month later, Larry made a guest appearance on the show in an episode entitled "Who is Betty?", which aired on February 19, 1958.

In 1959, when Lorrie was 17, she married Stu Carnall, who was Johnny Cash's manager and twice her age. She continued acting and singing with Ricky on the television show and recording and touring with her brother Larry until 1961, when she gave birth to her first child. The Collinses continued to perform into the 1960s, appearing as regulars in the 1963 Canadian music series Star Route, and the duo later made appearances on The Jackie Gleason Show and The Hollywood Palace as late as 1967. Many of their performances on Town Hall Party were released on DVD by Bear Family Records of Germany; a CD of their work on the show, Rockin' on T.V., was released in 1993 on the Krazy Kat label in Europe.

She is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

She and her brother reunited in 1992 and perform regularly at music festivals.