June Stearns was performing on the Midwestern Hayride in Cincinnati, OH when she wrote to Roy Acuff asking for a job. Acuff hired her for a few gigs in 1960 and '61 before she joined the band full-time in 1962. The next year Starday recorded an entire album by Acuff's Smoky Mountain Gang which featured June on several duets with Gene Martin. June returned to the Starday Studio later that year and recorded more duets with Red Sovine and became the first person to duet with Pete Drake's talking steel guitar. After quitting Acuff's band in 1965, effectively becoming the last "Smoky Mountain Girl," June signed with Columbia Records and charted ten songs in the Billboard Top 100 and recorded several duets with Lefty Frizzell and Johnny Duncan.