Joy McKean

Mildred Geraldine Joy Kirkpatrick (née McKean; 14 January 1930 – 25 May 2023), known professionally as Joy McKean, was an Australian country music singer-songwriter and wife and manager of Slim Dusty.

Her daughter is country singer and musician Anne Kirkpatrick.

McKean was known as the Queen of Australian country music, and considered a pioneer in the industry, recognized as one of Australia's leading songwriters and bush balladeers and wrote several of Dusty's most popular songs.

Joy McKean was born in Singleton in the Hunter Region, New South Wales, on 14 January 1930.

As an infant, McKean lived on the dairy farm belonging to her mother's family.

Her father was a country school teacher and the family moved around to several regional centres during her youth.

Her mother and their father, who was a steel guitar player, encouraged an interest in different types of music, including country performers Jimmie Rogers and the Carter Family.

Joy learned the accordion, piano and steel guitar, while younger sister Heather McKean learned the ukulele and both took up yodeling.

McKean also contracted polio as a child and was treated in Sydney by the famous Sister Kenny.

McKean first performed on the radio around the age of 10 on Sydney's 2GB radio station.

Later McKean and her sister, Heather McKean (born 20 February 1932), sang for the Sydney University Revue, while a student at the university.

By the age of 18, in the 1940s, she was performing live with her sister Heather on their own half-hour Saturday radio show on 2KY as the McKean Sisters, noted for their yodelling harmonies.

The Melody Trail starring the two sisters ran from 1949 until 1956.

The McKeans began recording, and from 1951 with Rodeo Label they cut such trademark hits as "Gymkhana Yodel" and "Yodel Down The Valley".

During this time, McKean met Slim Dusty, introduced by radio DJ Tim McNamara in Sydney.

Joy McKean married Slim Dusty (real name David Kirkpatrick) in 1951 (becoming Mrs Kirkpatrick, but retaining Joy McKean as her stage name).

Sister Heather met Reg Lindsay, whom she married in 1954 and the sisters began solo careers and partnerships with two of Australia's leading male country music singers.

McKean was Dusty's wife and manager for over 50 years, creating a hugely successful body of work.

Dusty and McKean had two children: Anne Kirkpatrick and David Kirkpatrick who are also accomplished singer-songwriters.

Dusty attained international success with his 1957 hit "A Pub With No Beer", and remained at the forefront of Australian country music from that time until his death in 2003.

Together they produced more than 100 albums, sold eight million records in Australia alone, and earned 45 Golden Guitars.

McKean developed a flair for melody and musical storytelling with vivid evocative imagery.

The family began annual round Australia tours in 1964 – encompassing a 30,000-mile, 10-month journey which was the subject of a feature film, The Slim Dusty Movie in 1984.

In 1973, she was awarded the first ever Golden Guitar, for writing "Lights on the Hill".

Several documentary films tell of the couple's success and adventures as performers, including The Slim Dusty Movie and Slim and I.

The McKean-Dusty partnership produced over 100 albums, and sold eight million records in Australia alone.

She was awarded the first ever Golden Guitar award in 1973, for writing "Lights on the Hill", performed by Dusty.

Other popular songs written by McKean for her husband include: "Walk A Country Mile", "Indian Pacific", "Kelly's Offsider", "The Angel of Goulburn Hill" and "The Biggest Disappointment".

McKean won several APRA Awards and was inducted into the Australian Roll of Renown in 1983.

She was the first winner of the Golden Guitars, an award she would win 45 times in her career.

McKean was awarded the OAM in 1991, with the citation "services to the entertainment industry".

In 1993 the McKean Sisters reunited to record a CD, "The McKeans on Stage" and continued to perform together on stage various times with the Slim Dusty Show over the subsequent decade leading up to Slim's death in 2003 and Tamworth's tribute "Concert for Slim" in 2004.

This tribute concert brought together over 30 Australian music artists and featured an historic duet performance by McKean and Paul Kelly of "Sunlander" and a cover of McKean's Lights on the Hill performed by Keith Urban.

McKean received her sixth Golden Guitar award in 2007 with "Peppimenarti Cradle" winning the Award for Bush Ballad of the Year.

McKean celebrated her 80th birthday in 2010 with the Happy Birthday Joy concert at Capitol Theatre in Tamworth during the Country Music Festival in January 2010.

McKean was one of the founders of the Tamworth Country Music Festival and the Country Music Association of Australia, and was also a biographer (Slim Dusty: Another Day, Another Town).

She was chair of the Slim Dusty Foundation Ltd, the organisation established to build and operate the Slim Dusty Centre in his home town of Kempsey, New South Wales.

In 2014, a bronze statue of McKean and Slim Dusty was unveiled in Tamworth, New South Wales

The centre opened in October 2015.

The 2020 Australian documentary film Slim and I, directed by Kriv Stenders was released when McKean was aged 90, and told the story of her life with Slim Dusty.