After high school, she obtained work as a session singer, after she was recommended by an aunt to an acquaintance who worked in television. In addition to acting as a receptionist at a studio in Memphis, she took part in recordings across the Deep South and appeared, for example, on recording sessions produced by Lincoln "Chip" Moman for
Elvis Presley and on
Percy Sledge's "When a Man Loves a Woman" (a number on hit in the USA in 1966). Other singers whom she backed included
Joe Tex,
Bobby Goldsboro and
Tommy Roe.