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< > God bless you,Miss Millie! We were blessed to have had you in our lives! Please send prayers and positive thoughts to Miss Millie's daughter, Shelley as well as her entire family and friends.

Nashville native Millie Kirkham, whose sky-high iconic soprano helped define Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" and a number of other classic '50s, '60s and '70s recordings, has died. Kirkham reportedly passed away in Nashville on Sunday after suffering a stroke last week. She was 91. Kirkham was born Mildred Eakes in Hermitage, Tenn., in 1923 and grew up in nearby Donelson. She started her career singing in the National Life and Accident Insurance Girls' Glee Club before becoming a regular performer on WSM broadcasts, including Sunday Down South, working under WSM-AM programming director and Tree Publishing (later Sony/ATV Music Publishing) founder Jack Stapp. She was married to drummer Doug Kirkham, who died in 1986. Singing as a sort of unofficial fifth member of The Jordanaires, Kirkham didn't just lead the "whoo-ooh-oohs" on "Blue Christmas," her first session with Elvis in 1957 — she came up with the part. As the story g