Carl Butler (1927 - 1992)

Carl Butler Carl Robert Butler was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 2, 1927. He grew up influenced by Roy Acuff and the old time music around his home. He began singing at local dances at the age of 12 and, after service in World War II, sang with several bluegrass bands and then as […]

DeFord Bailey (1899 - 1982)

DeFord Bailey Musician and Country Music Hall of Fame Member. A grandson of slaves, he was not just the first African American to appear on the Grand Ole Opry, he was the first star to appear. The show was originally named the WSM Barn Dance, but when it became a part of the NBC network […]

Philip Markoff (1986 - 2010)

Markoff was the son of Susan (née Haynes) and Richard Markoff, a dentist in Syracuse, New York. He had an older brother, Jon Markoff. He graduated in 2004 from Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School, where he was a member of the National Honor Society, the History Club, and the Youth Court, and the school bowling and golf […]

Jimmy Hoffa (1913 - 1982)

Hoffa was born in Brazil, Indiana, to Indiana natives John and Viola (née Riddle) Hoffa. His ancestors were Pennsylvania Dutch. His father died in 1920 when Hoffa was seven years old, and the family moved to Detroit in 1924, where Hoffa was raised and lived the rest of his life. Hoffa left school at age […]

Albert Fish (1870 - 1936)

Fish was born in Washington, D.C., on May 19, 1870, to Randall (1795 – October 16, 1875) and Ellen (née Howell; 1838–c. 1903) Fish. His father was American, of English ancestry, and his mother was Scots-Irish American. Fish said that he was named after statesman and politician Hamilton Fish, a distant relative. His father was […]

Susan Atkins (1948 - 2009)

Born in San Gabriel, California, the second of three children, Susan Atkins grew up in northern California. According to her, both her parents, Edward John and Jeanette, were alcoholics. Her mother died of cancer in 1963. Over the next three years, Susan’s life was disrupted by the gradual breakup of her family, frequent relocations, and […]

Bruce Reynolds (1931 - 2013)

Bruce Richard Reynolds was born at Charing Cross Hospital, Strand, London, the only child of Thomas Richard and Dorothy Margaret (née Keen). He was initially brought up in Putney, and his mother, a nurse, died in 1935 when he was aged four. His father, a trade-union activist at the Ford Dagenham assembly plant, remarried and […]

Grandpa Jones (1913 - 1998)

Grandpa Jones He is best remembered as an old time country and gospel music singer banjo player who always wore his pants tucked inside his boots, whose animated performances were often characterized by his leg kicks and foot stomping, and as a charter cast member of the CBS television show “Hee Haw” that aired from […]

Faron Young (1932 - 1996)

Faron Young Faron Young, a honky-tonk singer who became a pillar of Nashville country music, died yesterday at Columbia Summit Medical Center in Nashville, said Melanie Lamb, a hospital spokeswoman. He was 64. He died of a gunshot wound that apparently was self-inflicted, the police said; he was found wounded on Monday at his Nashville […]

Cowboy Copas (1913 - 1963)

Cowboy Copas On March 3, 1963, Copas, Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins and others performed at a benefit concert at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas for the family of disc jockey Cactus Jack Call, who had died the previous December in an automobile accident. On March 5, they left for Nashville […]

Al Downing (1940 - 2005)

Al Downing was an entertainer, singer, songwriter, and pianist. He received the Billboard’s New Artist of the Year and the Single of the Year Award in 1979. He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and was a frequent performer at the Grand Ole Opry. Downing was nominated as Best New Artist by the […]

Gary Stewart (1945 - 2003)

Gary Stewart Though his late 1970s albums were well received by critics and his core audience, Stewart never established a large audience. He was often labeled as “too country” for rock listeners and “too rock” for country fans. In 1980, he released the Chips Moman-produced Cactus and a Rose which featured Southern rockers Gregg Allman, […]

Brother Oswald (1911 - 2002)

Brother Oswald Musician. Born Beecher Ray Kirby, he was a Dobro guitar and banjo player best known as Bashful Brother Beecher. In 1934, taking the stage name Pete Kirby, he joined Roy Acuff’s Crazy Tennesseans in 1934, which became the Smoky Mountain Boys. In 1939, the Smoky Mountain Boys joined the cast of the Grand […]

Felice Bryant (1925 - 2003)

Felice Bryant Country Musician/Songwriter. Born on August 7, 1925, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Felice began writing songs as a child. In 1945 at the age of 20 she met her husband Boudleaux Bryant when they formed a songwriting team that would go on to become one of the great songwriting teams of country music. They began […]

Boudleaux Bryant (1920 - 1970)

Boudleaux Bryant Boudleaux was born in Shellman, Georgia and trained as a classical violinist. He performed with the Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra during its 1937-38 season, but had more interest in country fiddling and joined Hank Penny and his Radio Cowboys, an Atlanta-based western music band. In 1945 he met Scaduto, whom he called Felice, while […]

Brock Speer (1920 - 1999)

Brock Speer Gospel Singer. Born Houston, Alabama, he was a member of the Speer Family Singers, known as the “First Family of Southern Gospel music”. While still a small boy in the late 1920s, he began to perform with his family on stage. As he matured, his smooth bass voice became a trademark of group’s […]

Johnnie Cochran (1937 - 2005)

Johnnie Cochran Johnnie L Cochran, Jr. (October 2, 1937 – March 29, 2005) Legal Figure. He was best known for successfully defending Football star O.J. Simpson from 1994 to 1995 on double homicide charges as part of Simpson’s “Dream Team.” Cochran, who originally was from Shreveport, Louisiana, moved to Los Angeles, California, at a young age […]

Nelson Mandela (1918 - 2013)

Nelson Mandela On 5 December 2013, Nelson Mandela, the first President of South Africa elected in a fully representative democratic election, died at the age of 95 after suffering from a prolonged respiratory infection. He died at around 20:50 local time (UTC+2) at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg, South Africa, surrounded by his family. His […]

Billie Sol Estes (1925 - 2013)

Estes was born January 10, 1925 to John and Lillian Estes on a farm near Clyde, Texas. He was one of six children. He did not attend college, but served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II.  In the late 1950s, Estes was heavily involved in the Texas anhydrous ammonia business. He produced […]

Richard Ramirez (1960 - 2013)

Ramirez was born in El Paso, Texas, on either February 28, 1960 or February 29, 1960, the youngest of Julian and Mercedes Ramirez’s five children. His father, a Mexican national and former Juarez policeman who later became a laborer on the Santa Fe railroad, was a hard-working man prone to fits of anger that often […]

Ariel Castro (1960 - 2013)

Castro was 52 years old at the time of his arrest. He was born on July 10, 1960 in San Juan, Puerto Rico to Pedro Castro and Lillian Rodriguez. Shortly after his parents divorced when he was a child, Castro moved to the mainland U.S. with his mother and three siblings. The family first settled […]

Lizzie Borden (1860 - 1927)

Despite being the descendant of wealthy, influential area residents, Lizzie Borden’s father, Andrew Jackson Borden, grew up in very modest surroundings and struggled financially as a young man. He eventually prospered through the manufacture and sales of furniture and caskets, and went on to become a successful property developer. He directed several textile mills including […]

Jerry Quarry (1945 - 1999)

Jerry Quarry Quarry was a durable and smart counter-puncher/action fighter, often noted for his surprising agility in the ring. He had fast hands, an excellent left hook, and punched well with both hands. He also had a remarkable chin, although his major flaw was a tendency to cut easily and the bad luck to box […]

Joe Frazier (1944 - 2011)

Joe Frazier Hall of Fame Professional Boxer. Olympic Gold Medalist. World Heavyweight Champion (1970 until 1973). Regarded by may as being one of the greatest fighters of his era, he is famed for his epic bouts against Muhammad Ali, notably the contest referred to as the “Thrilla in Manila”. The son of a sharecropper, he […]

Donna Douglas (1932 - 2015)

American Actress. Douglas, who grew up in Baton Rouge, will best be remembered for her role as Elly May Clampett in the 1960s CBS television series, ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’. Born Doris Smith, she attended a Catholic High School where she was active in sports. In 1957, she was named “Miss Baton Rouge” and was later […]

Billy McCrary (1946 - 1979)

Billy McCrary Born in Hendersonville, North Carolina, he along with his brother Benny, were identical twins. At 743 and 723 pounds and having 84 inch waists, the brothers were discovered by Life Magazine. They entered show business as carnival performers and appeared in Las Vegas, Nevada, where they were in a act playing trumpets and […]

Benny McCrary (1946 - 2001)

Benny McCrary Benny McGuire, half of the famous giant McGuire twins, died Monday of heart failure in Hendersonville, N.C. at 54. Benny and Billy, whose real last name was McCrary, at 814 pounds and 784 pounds in the Guinness Book of World Records, are most widely recognized in a famous photograph of them on motorcycles. […]

Barry Sadler (1940 - 1989)

Barry Sadler Singer, United States Army Soldier. Born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, he was introduced to music at a young age when he spent some time at a logging camp. In 1958, he enlisted into the United States Air Force as a radar specialist, but discharged one year later to begin touring and playing music. […]

Bob Luman (1937 - 1978)

Bob Luman Luman was born in Blackjack, Texas, but raised in Nacogdoches, Texas. His early interest in music was influenced by his father, an amateur fiddle, guitar and harmonica player. Bob Luman received his first guitar when he was thirteen years of age. Luman attended high school in Kilgore, where the family had moved after […]

Westley Allan Dodd (1961 - 1993)

Westley Allan Dodd was born in Toppenish, Washington, on July 3, 1961, the oldest of Jim and Carol Dodd’s three children.  Dodd claimed he was never abused or neglected as a child. He also reported that he grew up in a wealthy, happy family. However, The Seattle Times reported that Dodd described in a diary […]