Merle Conn Longnecker [1927-2017] was the first woman to be inducted in the TGMHF.  She grew up singing with her family in East Texas and eventually gained notoriety along with her two sisters and three brothers.  When she was 19, Albert E. Brumley, writer of I’ll Fly Away, asked her to introduce his newest song, If We Never Meet Again, later made famous by Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.  Through out her life she sang on Gospel concert stages, in churches, on radio and on television all over the United States with the Conn Family, The Sunnysiders and Merle & The Gospel Four.