Grammy nominee Tyler Childers' wife since 2015, Senora May is a skilled and accomplished singer-songwriter in her own right.
Like her spouse, May grew up in rural Kentucky. A child of Appalachia with five siblings, May developed an affinity at an early age for the outdoors. Her love for the beauty of the region she's from —and an equal admiration of others from area— greatly informs her songwriting.
Over time, I've learned enough from outsiders that certain things are looked down upon about my culture and I've grown through those feelings of being less," she told the Daily Yonder in 2021. "In college and on the road, I learned there is so much more to be proud of about where I'm from and the people that I know and love. Appalachia is a grossly misunderstood paradise. It is diverse and giving and completely rich in culture. Just listen to the music, taste the flavors, look at the growing, harvesting, preserving, the cherished knowledge passed on and shared and there's no way to claim something different."
More than May's lyrics reflect the region she still calls home.
"The auditory boundaries are endless," she shared on her website. "You'll hear frequencies in the hills right before the sun goes down that you can't make up on your own with a synthesizer. Certain birds and little yipping foxes, bobcats, pitches of bugs, there's just so much to be inspired by."
May's maiden name is Lainhart, which is also the title of her 2018 debut album. While promoting the album, she told Huntington, WV's the Herald-Dispatch about her family background.
"My Mom was always an artist and has always encouraged that side of me,"she explained. "My parents are total opposites, really. My Mom is super lenient and hippy and into nature and she loves to study about conspiracy theories like Bigfoot and more. My Dad is more conservative. He grew up in Estill County and he worked at a factory long before I was born so all of us kids could have insurance. Now, he works at an aluminum plant in Berea, Ky., and he also farms and raises cattle and horses and we have an annual hog killing every year. My Mom was born in Miami but came to Kentucky when she was about 20. Her mom, my grandmother, did not speak English at all as she is from Columbia. I have about 40 cousins in Bogotá and I have been there a couple of times to visit."
Her second and most recent album, 2021's All of My Love tells true stories about her relationship with Childers. Read on for a timeline of their love.
May Meets Childers (2013)
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In 2013, May was cleaning houses for extra cash while attending classes at Berea College in Madison County, Kent.. Childers had taken a job at a farm nearby, positioning the future couple for a chance encounter.
"I was living out on this farm with a 65-year-old dude and this angel walks in," Childers told the Chicago Tribune in 2018. "That was four years ago. She's still putting up with me."
The song "Colors" from All of My Love is inspired by the couple's first months together.
"I wrote it when my husband and I moved to West Virginia around March 2013," May told the Daily Yonder. "We had been dating for about one month, I'd just graduated from Berea College and applied for 19 different Americorps Vista positions across the nation, and this was the first one to get back to me. I said, "Hey babe, ya wanna move to Pocahontas County, WV with me? I've been offered a local foods job there,' and he didn't hesitate, he just said yeah, why not? So we moved into this tiny studio apartment that a baker was renting and we fell in love there, getting stoned, hiking everywhere, driving my VW van out on the weekends to Maryland, Virginia Beach, Warm Springs, the Monongahela, Cranberry Glades... It was a super dreamy time period where I was, for the first time in my life, far enough from my family to miss them fondly but close enough to feel at home."
Marriage (2015)
During their first two years together, May believed in Childers as he pursued his musical career.
"For a good chunk of it, Senora May's put up with me and been there for it," Childers wrote on his website. "She stuck with me, so it's really awesome because we told ourselves that if we made these sacrifices, or held off just a little longer and kept at this, maybe one day it might work out."
Childers told the Chicago Tribune that May has always been patient and accepting as he maneuvers his own career because "she's an all-around artist in her own right."
The couple wed in July of 2015. Details on their big day are scarce, aside from Childers' throwback Instagram post from April 17, 2019.
"She took a poofy winter wedding dress she found at Goodwill for $10...and turned it into the prettiest summer wedding dress I ever did see," reads the caption. "[May] is more woman than I deserve, and all the woman I'll ever need."
Co-Founding the Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund (HHRF) (2020)
Both Childers and May are known in part as activists with passions for aiding their fellow rural Kentuckians.
Per its website, the couple co-founded the Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund (HHRF) in 2020 "to bring awareness and financial support for philanthropic efforts in the Appalachian Region."
The fund aids such causes as Hope in the Hills, which fights the region's opioid crisis, as well as the ACLU of Kentucky and the Louisville Urban League. In addition, there's plans for a Hickman Holler Appalachian College Fund. For more information, check out the FAQ section on the organization's website.
"The Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund is something my husband and I had hoped to create for a while," May told Leo Weekly. "It's a fund in which we direct contributions, generated from projects that we put out, to address problems that would benefit from financial assistance. I realize that a lot of the things we're aiding [including Louisville Urban League and Give Black, Give Back] need a lot more than we're able to give but it's a good thing to shed light on something, too, that way other people can see the need and pitch in. The fund has a board and is managed by The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, but my husband and I determine how the money we generate — with album sales, fundraisers, percentages of ticket sales and more — should be distributed."
Parenthood (2023)
In July of 2022, May shared on Instagram that she was pregnant.
"Feeling so much lately," May wrote in the caption. "Writing and singing and thinking of all the mamas and babies and body parts and intentions. No matter what each of us want for our own, we gotta protect one another's choice to choose what's best for each. I'm lucky in a million ways, but sad for the ways that hold other women down and back. I'm blessed I haven't had issues, that having a baby is what I've dreamed of for so long, and I'm in a position to care for the sweet lil thing. But many women aren't so lucky. I will never forget that."
The following Mother's Day (May 14, 2023), the Hickman Holler Appalachian Relief Fund's Instagram account shared a photo of the couple with their first-born child.
The baby's name and sex have yet to be revealed by the couple.
