Between 1960 and 1978, Hattie Louise "Tootsie" Bess was the proprietor of Tootsie's Orchid Lounge on Nashville's Lower Broadway, where under her stewardship it became a gathering place for country musicians and songwriters. Supportive during artists' lean periods and forgiving of their debts, she became a beloved figure within the music community. Probably born southwest of Hohenwald in or near Flatwoods on August 23, 1913, as Hattie Louise Tatum, she moved with her family to Old Hickory, Tennessee, to all work at the DuPont Rayon mill. She first married in Hohenwald in 1931, and by 1940 was living with her two children and widowed mother in Lomax Crossroads, near Hohenwald. She returned to Nashville in the early 1940s, met Grover ("Big Jeff") Bess, and married him after he had worked in several country bands and then started his own, the Radio Playboys, around 1946. During the era of live morning radio, he was popular on WLAC, and Tootsie became the Playboys' on-stage comedian and de facto manager; one of the Playboys' singers, Harold Weakley, married Tootsie's daughter Willie-Ann. The first nightclub that Jeff and Tootsie operated, the Holiday Inn, opened in 1948 but flooded soon after, and as live radio gave way to deejay shows they increasingly focused on running clubs, including Big Jeff's Country Club on Franklin Road and Tootsie's Car Hop on the Clarksville Highway. In March 1960, Tootsie and Jeff took over the lease of Mom's Place on Nashville's Lower Broadway, where an alley separated the back door of the bar from the stage door of the Ryman Auditorium and many performers crossed over for a beer and sandwich. Tootsie upheld the tradition of a closed off entertainers room, where performers and songwriters held jam sessions and song pulls. The club's name changed from Mom's Place to Tootsie's Place and finally to Tootsie's Orchid Lounge after a decorator painted the exterior a vivid purple. Known for lending money, forgiving bar bills, and offering sympathy and encouragement, she supported generations of songwriters and musicians, including Charley Pride, Kris Kristofferson, Roger Miller, Tom T. Hall, Willie Nelson, and many others. John Grissim wrote in his 1970 book Country Music-White Man's Blues that Tootsie's was the "metaphysical center of all things C&W," Bobby Bare said the music industry would have gone hungry for songs for a while if a bomb had been dropped on it, Kristofferson called Tootsie's "A home for homeless souls," and Hall called her a finance company, booking agent, and counselor. She began the tradition of covering the walls with photos of famous and would-be famous artists, and the entertainers room's walls were covered in autographs. Business declined after the Grand Ole Opry moved to Opryland in March 1974, and after Tootsie Bess died on Feb. 18, 1978, it declined still further, though later Tootsie's became a focal point of Nashville's Lower Broadway renaissance.
