Redd Stewart Biography

May 27, 1923:  Born Henry Ellis Stewart in Ashland City, Tennessee; the son of musical parents and raised in Louisville, Ky. Redd's family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, while he was still young. He learned to play the banjo, piano, fiddle and guitar as a child, then dropped out of junior high to perform in local bands. He legally changed his first name to Redd because of his red hair, freckles and fair complexion. In the early years he went by the name of Tiny because he was so small - only weighed about 125-130 lbs. (picture to left shows Redd at 14 years old.)

1937:  Redd was contracted to write a song for a commercial in Louisville, Kentucky at the age of 14  (he completed only the seventh grade) for Ford Motor car dealer. Here is how the jingle went:

Watch the Fords go by
See them how they fly
Full of pep and speed
Always in the lead
There must be a reason why
(Redd and his band did a show from their showroom on fifth street and it was broadcast on WGRC.)   

He then formed and played in various bands around Louisville (picture above shows Redd at age 16 proudly posing with the members of his band, the Kentucky Wildcats.)  Click on image to enlarge.

1937:  Pee Wee King came to Louisville, Ky. to play on WHAS and signed  Redd as a musician with the Golden West Cowboys. At the time, Eddy Arnold was the band's vocalist. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Redd was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to the South Pacific. While stationed there with the rank of sergeant, Redd wrote "A Soldier's Last Letter," which Ernest Tubb worked on and recorded in 1944, making it a No.1 hit staying at the top for four weeks out of a seven month stay on the Country charts and crossing over to the Pop chart Top 20. When Redd returned to Pee Wee's Golden West Cowboys at the end of WW II, he became the band's vocalist, Arnold having gone solo. Now Redd started to take songwriting seriously.

1947:  He appeared on the Grand Ole Opry with Pee Wee King and his Golden West Cowboys until 1947 and a year earlier, he and Pee Wee wrote their first major success, "Bonaparte's Retreat," which was Kay Starr's launch-pad to stardom.  Redd signed a lifetime exclusive songwriting contract with Acuff-Rose Publications.

1947-1957:  In 1947, Pee Wee, Redd and the band moved to WAVE Louisville, Kentucky, where they had a weekly radio show and then later in the year, they transferred to WAVE-TV, where they had a television show until 1957.  Redd sang on Pee Wee King's 1948 version, which reached the Top 3 on the Country chart and crossed over to the Top 30 on the Pop charts, on RCA Victor. It was re-issued in 1951 and climbed to the Top 10. Other hit versions, in 1948, were by Cowboy Copas (Top 3) and Roy Acuff (Top 15). The following year, Tennessee featured in the title of two other King hits on which Redd appeared, namely, "Tennessee Tears" and "Tennessee Polka."  Pee Wee King's version of "Bonaparte's Retreat" edged into the Top 10, during 1950.

1948:  'Tennessee Waltz', his most popular song, was written with Pee Wee King. (King & Stewart decided to write the song after hearing Bill Monroe's Kentucky Waltz on the radio. Stewart emptied a matchbox and tore it open to write down the song.)

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