Frances Dyer was 8 or 9 years old when she and her brother became the reigning amateur champs in the weekly talent shows held at Carmel Auto Rest Park back in the mid-1930s. The singing duo was confident no one with more talent could come along to best them.

Then one Sunday night a `cute little 6-year-old girl” knocked them out of first place. It was a lesson the woman who would come to be known professionally as Ginger-Mae never forgot.

“It taught me not to get overconfident and it stuck with me all these years,” said Dyer, 71, sitting in the dining room of her Corinna farmhouse. On the walls of the dining room are the two 45 rpm records she recorded, next to black-and-white photos of a younger Ginger-Mae with the country music band the Western Playboys.

Last month, she added a new honor to the others bestowed upon her over the years — member of the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame. The daylong ceremony and show were held April 30 in Portland. Dyer’s fellow inductee was James “Jimmy” H. Cox of Topsham.

Dyer’s childhood career was short-lived. Her mother died when she was 7, and though her older sisters tried to care for her and her brother, the girl eventually went to live in a series of foster homes beginning when she was 13. She earned her first guitar — a Gene Autry, named for the singing cowboy movie star — by selling seeds door-to-door.

She learned to play it from a foster father who drew pictures that showed her where to place her fingers on the frets to play the chords. She also taught herself to yodel and practiced outside “behind the barn or a shed” to avoid being teased by other children.

Dyer was just 17 when she married Jim Dyer in 1947. He became her manager and biggest booster. In 1956, the couple moved to Connecticut and he gave her the Martin guitar she still plays today.

Dyer took the name Ginger-Mae in the early 1950s when she teamed up for a short time with a man named George.

“I don’t remember his last name,” she said, her pale blue eyes sparkling. “I thought Ginger-Mae just sounded good with George. Nobody called me Frances anyway. … The red was my symbol. I put roses on the guitar [they are still there] and had them [appliqued] down the outside of my pants legs.”

Dyer played the state fair in Danbury, Conn., with the Western Playboys for 14 years. To make a living, “we had to play the gin joints,” she recalled. “For four years, we played four nights a week. I used to do a lot of Loretta Lynn or whatever would make ’em cry in their beer. `You’re Not Woman Enough to Take My Man’ was a favorite.”

Ginger Mae and the Western Playboys thought their big break had arrived in the late 1960s. A New York ad agency hired them to do a television commercial for Benson & Hedges 100s, which at that time was the longest cigarette made. One week before the ad was to begin airing, the Federal Communications Commission banned cigarette advertising on television.

When the Dyer family returned to Maine in 1970, they had four children, ranging in age from 5 to 22. Their youngest, Darryl, now an evangelist, was born in 1976.

Ginger-Mae had tired of playing in smoky bars, and her newfound Christianity led her away from popular country music to gospel songs. She immersed herself in church activities and joined the Grange. In the mid-1970s, she placed second in a nationwide talent contest sponsored by the Grange.

Today, the Dyers split their time between the Corinna farmhouse, where they have lived for a decade, and Florida. In the winter months, they live in a recreational vehicle and travel throughout Florida.

Ginger-Mae devotes much of her time to music ministry now. She performs in churches in Florida and Maine, and volunteers at the Maine State Correctional Center in Windham.

“I haven’t felt the need to be in one denomination,” she said. “I go wherever I’m invited. Doing music is a wonderful way to walk with the Lord. You can be a witness where you are, even in those places some think it’s a sin to go to. … I’m free in my spirit. If I make a wrong step, God will correct it.”

While Dyer’s own focus has switched from country to gospel music, she has high praise for the young performers leading the industry into a new century.

“The youth today are not afraid to do what they feel,” she observed. “I believe we Hall of Famers should cheer them on. We may lose some to rock ‘n’ roll, but they come back and bring the rock music with them. The music is much more complex than the three basic chords that was country music when I first started.”

Dyer is eager for summer to arrive and for her husband to get the shed cleared out so they can begin having weekend “pickin’ parties.” She plans to invite a lot of musicians including “Christians and those who don’t profess to be, along with the neighbors. We’ll all play together and see what happens. That’s my favorite kind of music.”