Jeannie Seely was a 12-year-old girl in rural Pennsylvania when she first heard Kitty Wells ’ song “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.” ...

Wells recorded the song on Dec. 20, 1966, but it was never released. Parton’s book, Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, is the first place the lyrics have ever appeared in print.

Singer Kitty Wells, whose hits such as “Making Believe” and “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” made her the first female superstar of country music, died Monday. She was 92.

Jeannie Seely was a 12-year-old girl in rural Pennsylvania when she first heard Kitty Wells’ song “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.” It was 1952, and Wells’ unlikely hit was ...