Holly Dunn Artistfacts

August 22, 1957 - November 15, 2016
Born in San Antonio, Texas, Dunn began her music career as a songwriter and demo singer in Nashville for CBS Records and MTM Records. Along with her brother Chris Waters, she penned tunes for Marie Osmond, Louise Mandrell, and Cristy Lane.
Her first hit was "Daddy's Hands," a song she wrote as a Father's Day gift for her father, a preacher. Although she would have bigger hits than the #7 single, "Daddy's Hands" remains the most memorable. "I still get emails about it personally every day," she told us in 2016. "Still, 30 years later."
She earned two Grammy Award nominations for "Daddy's Hands": Best Country Vocal Performance - Female and Best Country & Western Song.
Her playful 1991 tune "Maybe I Mean Yes" stirred controversy when its ill-timed release coincided with TIME magazine's landmark issue about date rape. While advocates for rape victims were driving home the message "No Means No," they didn't appreciate Holly's breezy "Maybe I Mean Yes." Holly explained the song was meant capture the flirtatious banter between a man and woman who are first dating, but she pulled the record in response to the controversy.
She retired from the music scene in 2003 to focus on her passion for art (her mother was also a painter). She opened the Holly Dunn Art Song Gallery, part of the Peña+Dunn Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She was a long-standing member of the Grand Ole Opry but lost her membership after retiring from music.
She died of ovarian cancer at a hospice facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, less than a year after being diagnosed.

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