Marg Osburne

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Marg Osburne
Marg Osburne
Background information
Birth name	Verna Marguerite Osburn
Also known as	The Girl from the Singing Hills
Born	December 29, 1927(1927-12-29) Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
Died	July 16, 1977 (aged 49) Rocklyn, Ontario, Canada
Genre(s)	Country Music, Gospel Music, Folk Music
Occupation(s)	Singer-Songwriter Vocalist
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	1945 – 1977
Label(s)	Apex Records, Coral Records (Canada), Point Records, ARC Records (Canada), Rodeo Records, Banff Records, Marathon Records, OAK Country Music Condor
Associated acts	Don Messer

Marg Osburne (1927-12-29-1977-07-16) was a Canadian country, folk and gospel singer.

She was born in Moncton, New Brunswick and received her vocal training as a member of a community choir. When she was 17 her cousin made her a bet that she did not have the nerve to answer a newspaper advertisement for a girl vocalist for CKCW in Moncton. Marg answered the ad and got the job.

Don Messer was travelling through Moncton in 1947 and heard Marg singing on CKCW, billed as “The Girl From the Singing Hills”. He hired her immediately to fill in for Charlie Chamberlain who was recovering from an automobile accident.

Don Messer's Islanders were then broadcasting on CFCY out of Charlottetown, PEI thrice-weekly and the show was distributed nationwide by the CBC.

Marg and Charlie quickly became popular performers on the show and on records. Marg's folk and gospel solos were also very popular and her records sold well.^{[citation needed]}

In the mid-1950s they moved to Halifax with Don Messer and began broadcasting on television. The television program was picked up by the CBC in 1959. This enlarged her fan base dramatically.^{[citation needed]}

After Don Messer died in 1973, Marg began a second successful career as a nightclub singer, and she was extremely popular in the Western Provinces and Territories of Canada.^{[citation needed]} During this period she had three hit songs for Jack Boswell's Marathon label, "Albert County Soil", "Falling Leaves", and "Blues Come Around".^{[citation needed]} "Falling Leaves" is also the only song she wrote herself.

On July 16, 1977, she collapsed during a concert in Rocklyn, Ontario and died before she reached the hospital. She was 49 years old.