ROOTS of Country Music

Holcombe, Wendy Lou (Little Wendy)

(Apr.19, 1963, Alabaster, Alabama ~ Feb. 14, 1987)

Little Wendy Holcombe from the Porter Wagoner Show, was a teenage musician and fledgling bluegrass music star when she came into the spotlight. She had blond pigtails, a red checkered baby doll dress and bounced up and down when she played the Banjo. Her enormous talent catapulted her to the very top of the entertainment world, but due to an enlarged heart, fate took her down a different path. 

A highly talented musician, singer and songwriter, Wendy learned to play her father’s banjo at an early age. While still in grade school, she sang and played the guitar at clubs and festivals being billed as Little Miss Wendy Alabama. Wendy won a county fair talent contest which led to a semi-regular guest spot on the Country Boy Eddie Show, the early-morning country music television show out of Birmingham, Alabama, that started Tammy Wynette. 

Wendy had been playing the banjo about seven months when she convinced her father to take her to the Grand Ole Opry. On Wendy’s 12th birthday, her father took her to Nashville, Tennessee. While window shopping, Wendy picked up a banjo and started playing Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Roni Stoneman’s bass player heard her and the next night Wendy played on Ernest Tubb’s Midnight Jamboree. “Can you pick that thing” Roy Acuff commanded of Wendy when she walked in the stage door of the Opry House, lugging her banjo, She demonstrated that she could and soon found herself in Acuff's dressing room, jamming with his Smokey Mountain Boys, Grandpa Jones and other Opry regulars.

Acuff asked her to appear as his guest the following night at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, Midnight Jamboree and Don Warden, then steel player for Porter Wagoner, mentioned that he might like to use her on Porter's television show. 

During the next four weeks, Holcombe returned to Music City several times, to tape the Porter Wagoner Show and Pop! Goes the Country. But the most exciting trip to Nashville was still to come. In December, 1975, Holcombe was Jim Ed Brown's guest on the Grand Ole Opry, thus fulfilling the prophecy she had made to her mother when she first picked up the banjo.

And, being a young lady with beauty, energy and talent, Wendy created a very strong and entertaining presence on stage, eventually leading to roles on television. One in particular, “Big Blue Marble,” a children’s show that focused on children all over the world, featured a young Wendy Holcombe. 

Wendy appeared many times on television including one episode of “The New Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” and a variety of musical performances for various country music programs such as Nashville on the Road. Wendy continued to make trips to Nashville after playing the Opry. She traveled all over the United States taping Nashville on the Road and making personal appearances.

Tandy Rice of Top Billing, Nashville, Tennessee, became her manager. In addition to a regular on the Porter Wagoner Show, Little Wendy appeared on Hee Haw (1980), Nashville on the Road (1980) and Pop Goes the Country (1980). 

In 1980, during an appearance on Hee Haw, Wendy met musician Thomas Yoshiro Blosser. Thomas was already playing back-up for many successful country music stars at the time but there was something about Wendy that caught his eye. He began playing backup for her and as the opportunities began increasing for the two, they decided to marry.

They had a very happy marriage and moved from Florida to Hickory, North Carolina to be near family. They made a tour of Israel in 1983 with Bill Monroe and Mac Wiseman. Around that time, perhaps a bit earlier, they also made a world tour, mostly of Asia, Australia and New Zealand, with Perry Como as a blue-grass opening performance preceding Como's show. 

From her childhood, apparently, Wendy was troubled with a heart condition. Wendy was diagnosed with symptoms of advancing cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disease). Little Wendy Holcombe died on Feb. 14, 1987 from heart failure. Her husband, Thomas Yoshiro Blosser (Nov. 3, 1951 – Mar. 23, 2006), a naturalized citizen from Muroran, Japan, also died from heart failure.

Researched and written by Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music. Apr. 13, 2011.