Robert Humphrey Amburgey
and Gertrude Quillen

Robert Humphrey Amburgey

Gertrude Quillen Amburgey

Con, Don and Glenn Amburgey

L-R: Bertha and Gertrude Quillen

L-R: Martha, Mattie and Minnie Amburgey - The Sunshine Sisters

Don Chapel and Tammy Wynette

Robert Humphrey Amburgey Jr b 11 May 1888 d 30 Jul 1962 s/o Alfred Amburgey and Elizabeth Betts Amburgey. Robert Humphrey Amburgey m. 22 Nov 1917 to 2nd Gertrude Quillen b 1898 d/o Richard Quillen II and Carrie Venters. His occupation mechanic and carpenter and he played the fiddle which inspired his daughter, Irene "Martha Carson" to be a musician.

Robert Amburgey and his wife Gertrude Quillen Amburgey were of hardy mountaineer stock. They made their home in the coal mining region of Letcher County in eastern Kentucky, near the Virginia line. Their house was the next to last one up the holler out from Neon, Ky., which appears on today's Kentucky maps as Fleming-Neon. Robert was a carpenter and a brattice man, builder of coal mine support structures. Gertrude kept house, looked after the cows and chickens that were the source of much of what the family had to eat, and tended to her children, of whom there would eventually be six; three girls and three boys.

The Amburgeys lived less than 50 miles, as the crow flies, from Poor Valley, Va., home of the legendary Carter Family. Like the Carters, the Amburgeys and the Quillens were musically talented. The Amburgeys were noted for their ability to play string instruments, and the banjo was the one that Robert Amburgey chose to concentrate on. The Quillens, on the other hand, were singers. They sang the Stamps-Baxter-type gospel material and traveled over a wide circuit of eastern Kentucky visiting churches where they performed at all-day singings and shaped-note singing conventions.

Gertrude Amburgey, who did not bestow full approval on her husband's banjo picking, persuaded him to join herself, her father, and her brother in forming the Quillen Quartet which was well received by congregations who loved the gospel harmony they performed.

Into this rich heritage of string instrument and gospel music the three Amburgey sisters, Bertha (Minnie), Irene (Martha), and Opal (Mattie Jean), in that order, were born.

"We just had a love for the string instruments," Martha says. At an early age, Minnie adds, "we were trying to sing, too. We were trying to get into the act." She says that seeing and hearing their parents singing before church audiences impressed them as very glamorous. "And we thought we wanted to do that, too," she says. Children of Robert Humphrey Amburgey and Gertrude Quillen;

I. Bertha "Minnie" Amburgey m. to (1) Charles "Ducky" Woodruff; (3 children); m. 1990 to (2) Bob Garcia. Minnie Woodruff was the female voice heard on some of Bill Carlisle's biggest hits such as "Too Old To Cut The Mustard," "No Help Wanted," and "Is Zat You Myrtle?". 

II Irene Ethel "Martha Carson" Amburgey b 19 May 1921 Neon, Letcher Co KY d Thursday, 16 Dec 2004 Nashville, TN age 83 (see obituary); m. (divorced 1950) 1st to James Roberts s/o Fiddlin' Doc Roberts; m. 2nd to Xavier Cosse.

III. Opal "Mattie" Jean Amburgey (aka Jean Chapel and Mattie O'Neill) m. (divorced) (1) Floyd "Salty" Holmes; (1 daughter); m. (2) Unknown.

IV. Glenn Amburgey

V. Conley Martin Amburgey b about 1936 d Saturday, 14 Jun 2008 m. Mary Anne Unknown.

VI. Lloyd "Don Chapel" Amburgey m. Unknown; Lloyd "Don Chapel" Amburgey m. Tammy Wynette. (annulled - no children)

Robert Humphrey Amburgey
and Mary Annabelle C Baker

Robert Humphrey Amburgey Jr b 11 May 1888 d 30 Jul 1962 s/o Alfred Amburgey and Elizabeth Betts Amburgey. Robert Humphrey Amburgey m. 31 Dec 1911 to Mary Annabelle C Baker b 1898 d 1915;