Roni Stoneman was the youngest daughter of the pioneering country music family and a woman who overcame poverty and abusive husbands to claim the title of "The First Lady of Banjo," a fixture on the Nashville scene, and, as Hee Haw's Ironing Board Lady, a comedienne beloved by millions.

Drawn from more than seventy-five hours of recorded interviews, Pressing On reveals Roni's gifts as a master storyteller. With characteristic spunk and candor, she describes her "pooristic" ("way beyond 'poverty-stricken'") Appalachian childhood, and how her brother Scott taught her to play the challenging and innovative three-finger banjo picking style developed by Earl Scruggs. She also warmly recounts Hee Haw-era adventures with Minnie Pearl, Roy Clark, and Buck Owens; her encounters as a musician with country greats like Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, June Carter, and Patsy Cline; as well as her personal struggles with shiftless and violent husbands, her relationships with her children, and her musical life after Hee Haw.

| Contents Preface Acknowledgments 1. Family 2. A Classy Person: Aunt Jack 3. My Childhood 4. Music 5. Learning the Banjo 6. Education 7. Sex Education 8. First Love 9. My Brothers and Sisters 10. The Performing Stonemans 11. First Marriage 12. The Stoneman Family Band Comes Together 13. Opry 14. My First Love Affair 15. Out West 16. Nashville 17. George 18. Scotty 19. Hee Haw 20. George After Hee Haw 21. The Kids 22. The Real Thing 23. My Bronze Uterus 24. On the Road 25. Husbands 3, 4, And 5 26. Losing Hee Haw 27. My Religion 28. Now Afterword |"[A] moving and frequently comical memoir."—The Tennessean
"Co-author Ellen Wright has skillfully assembled and corroborated Stoneman's narratives. . . . Stoneman's story is crammed with her personality, full of funny anecdotes about her family and other performers with whom she worked, all wrapped in her hillborn cussedness."—No Depression
"It is a gripping and well-told tale, and Stoneman's can-do spirit, which helped her rise above daunting personal and professional challenges, should inspire all readers."—Library Journal
|Roni Stoneman was a member of the legendary Stoneman Family and a longtime cast member of Hee Haw. She remains a performing banjo player, entertainer, and comedienne. Ellen Wright is Distinguished Senior Lecturer Emeritus in the writing program at Northwestern University.