Minnie Pearl's Hat - Minnie Pearl, the belle of Grinders' Switch, was a down-home comedian who greeted her many fans in theaters, concert halls, record albums, and guest spots on TV with her trademark greeting "Howww-deeee!" And all the while she's proudly worn a battered old straw hat with a small white price tag hanging from its brim. Minnie once said that "The price tag on my hat seems to be symbolic of all human frailty. There's old Minnie standing on stage in her best dress, telling everybody how proud she is to be there, and she's forgotten to take the $1.98 price tag off her hat." In 1975, Minnie was enrolled in the Country Music Hall of Fame. In October 1992 Barbara Mandrell hosted "Hats Off To Minnie Pearl", a 2 & 1/2 hour special tribute on the TNN network that paid homage to the performer born Sarah Ophelia Colley in Centerville, Tennessee in 1912.