Cindy Walker - 'Dean of Texas songwriters' is dead at 87
'Dean of Texas songwriters' is dead at 87
By Carl Hoover Tribune-Herald entertainment editor
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Cindy Walker, one of Texas' most prolific and respected songwriters, died Thursday night at Parkview Regional Hospital in Mexia. The longtime Mexia resident and Mart native was 87.
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday at the First Presbyterian Church of Mexia with internment following in Mexia Cemetery.
Walker wrote more than 500 songs in her career, including such numbers as "Cherokee Maiden," "Miss Molly," "Bubbles in My Beer" and "You're from Texas," which Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys turned into western swing standards; "Warm Red Wine" for Ernest Tubb; and "You Don't Know Me," a hit for Eddy Arnold.
Typing out lyrics on a pink Remington manual typewriter, she crafted Top Ten hits in each decade from the 1940s to the 1980s. Her body of work made her a charter member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. She was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997.
A virtual constellation of stars recorded her songs: Wills, Arnold, Gene Autry, Bing Crosby, Willie Nelson, Tubb, Roy Orbison, Hank Snow, Ray Charles, Merle Haggard, Jim Reeves, Ricky Skaggs, Glen Campbell and Lacy J. Dalton.
Those who worked with her over the years remembered a consummate professional who fiercely protected her privacy yet proved a loyal and generous friend.
"She was the dean of Texas songwriters and an enormous inspiration to anyone who ever tried to match melody with lyrics," said Casey Monahans, executive director of the Texas Music Commission and a close friend. "She had a remarkable gift for making complex songs sound simple."
Leon Rausch, former lead vocalist with the Texas Playboys, remembered her as "a genuine Texas gal and that's about the simplest I could tell you."
Even with almost two dozen songs on the CD, five of which were never before recorded, there were dozens more Walker songs that Rausch said he could have mined as well.
"She didn't appreciate her status in life as many of us did," he said, noting that up until a bout of failing health last year, Walker woke at 5 a.m. each day to start writing songs.
In recent years, Rausch often accompanied her to award ceremonies and other recognitions of her work.
"I was proud to be in her company," he said. "It made me look important and I don't mind telling you that. I'm going to miss her a lot."
China Spring resident Curly Hollingsworth, a western swing pianist who frequently played Walker tunes with Rausch and Texas fiddler Johnny Gimble, recorded several song demos for the Mexia songstress in her later years.
He remembered her as slightly reclusive but extremely talkative with friends over the phone and more than willing to help someone in need.
"She'd talk all day on the phone with you," he said. "She was a good person ...."
Asked about others' observation that Walker had a strong personality and decided opinions about how she wanted her music performed, 73-year-old Hollingsworth laughed in agreement. “Oh, boy, I mean,” he said.
Born July 20, 1918, in Mart, a year she would dispute in official reports of her age, Walker had music and songwriting in her bloodstream. Her grandfather, F.P. Eiland, wrote hymns ("Hold to God's Unchanging Hand") while her mother, Oree, was a pianist.
At 12 she wrote "Dusty Skies," a song about drought-plagued Oklahoma in the 1920s and one that Bob Wills and the Playboys would record 11 years later.
In 1941, she and her mother accompanied her father, Aubrey, a cotton buyer, to Los Angeles, where she literally talked her way into the music business, convincing Bing Crosby to record her "Lone Star Trail" and winning a contract with Decca Records.
A short time later, she discovered Bob Wills and his band were in L.A., tracked down his manager and parlayed a meeting with Wills into five songs that Wills and his band recorded for Columbia Records that year.
Walker enjoyed modest success as a singer herself – her 1944 song "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again" reached Top Ten status – but her songwriting was what ultimately won attention.
Start a New Post 
Cindy Walker - 'Dean of Texas songwriters' is dead at 87
bravenet.com