Yodeling seems to require the type of vocal brawn a singer only builds through years of practice.

Betty Hitchcock, of Port Byron, yodels pretty naturally.

“I can't remember when I couldn't do it,” she said.

As a 3-year-old growing up in Vincennes, Ind., Hitchcock taught herself the singing skill with some encouragement from her uncle Charles. He helped her bridge the gap between her lower and upper octaves that yodelers straddle when they sing in their distinctive style.

Hitchcock's father, Louis, played the violin and Betty accompanied him on guitar at square dances, even though she only knew G, C and D chords. She called her first dance when she was 12.

“Mom said (music) kept me busy and I didn't think about boys,” Hitchcock said.

When she was 17, Betty would meet Gordon Hitchcock, her future husband of almost 60 years, across the Wabash River in Illinois. When he returned to his home of Port Byron with Betty as his wife, she found herself in a far different social climate from Vincennes.

“I thought the community didn't like me; they seemed wary of strangers,” she said. “In Indiana, everybody was friendly and knew everyone in the family.”

Through a beauty shop she operated for 35 years out of her home on Main Street, Hitchcock grew acquainted with her new neighbors when they became her “captive audience,” she said. But her chances to pursue her love of country music in central New York were still rare.

“If there were country stations on, I listened,” she said.

At the suggestion of DJs Fred Lewis and Early Williams at the WSEN country music radio station in Baldwinsville, Hitchcock traveled to Nashville in 1967 to record eight songs. Her songs were written with the themes of “love, tenderness and appreciation” Hitchcock cherishes in country music.

Hitchcock has performed her music to large audiences at the Three Rivers Inn in Phoenix, NY and Suburban Park in Manlius.

“It's nice especially when someone recognizes me after the second time they've seen me,” she said.

Though she hasn't performed frequently, Hitchcock leaps at the opportunity to do so when she is asked. Dawn Roe, Port Byron's historian, found this out when she asked Hitchcock to perform at the Port Byron Senior Recreation Center's Thanksgiving Luncheon Thursday.

“She travels with her guitar in her vehicle,” Roe said.

Hitchcock's contributions to Port Byron and central New York's country music scene were recognized when Sept. 16, 2007 was named Betty Hitchcock Day in Cayuga County. She was also inducted into the Cortland County Country Music Hall of Fame in 1990.

And today, her voice is as strong as ever.

“I've gotten calluses from square dance calling,” she said. “But my voice doesn't get tired yodeling.”