Tootsie Bess, a recording artist, bought an old bar on lower broad and renamed it Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, after herself and her favorite flower (and maybe because a tipsy young painter painted the bar an odd orchid shade of purplish-pink). Right around the corner from the Ryman Auditorium, Tootsie's became the "green room" for artists waiting their turn to sing at the mother church of country music
Tootsie was known to slip $5s and $10s into the pockets of luckless writers and pickers. It was said that she had a cigar box behind the counter full of IOU’s from where she had given drinks and food to hungry pickers and writers. Supposedly, at each years end, a bunch of Opry Performers would take all the IOUs and pay Tootsie so she wouldn’t lose the money.
Records recorded about Tootsie’s include “The Wettest Shoulders in Town” and “What’s Tootsies Gonna Do When They Tear the Ryman Down?” It is rumored that Roger Miller wrote “Dang Me” in Tootsies.
Famous early customers were Kris Kristofferson, Faron Young, Willie Nelson, Tom T. Hall, Hank Cochran, Mel Tillis, Roger Miller, Webb Pierce, Waylon Jennings, Patsy Cline and many more. Charlie Pride gave her the jeweled hatpin that she used to stick unruly patrons. In fact, Willie Nelson got his first songwriting job after singing at Tootsie’s.
Movies filmed at Tootsie’s include “W.W. & the Dixie Dance Kings” starring Bert Reynolds, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” about Loretta Lynn and starring Sissy Spacek, and “The Nashville Rebel” starring Tex Ritter, Porter Wagoner, Faron Young, Loretta Lynn, The Wilburn Brothers, and Waylon Jennings.
At her funeral were Tom T. Hall, Roy Acuff and Faron Young. She was buried in an orchid gown, with an orchid placed in the orchid-colored casket, so she could take her favorite flower with her to heaven. Connie Smith sang some of Tootsie’s favorite hymns at the funeral.
