His Personal & Professional Life

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.
1935 -  Redd was contracted to write a song for a car dealer's commercial in Louisville, Kentucky at the age of 14  (he completed only the seventh grade.)  He then formed and played in various bands around Louisville, including the Prairie Riders.
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.
1946 - Married Frances Jean Grimes at the age of 23.
1947 -He appeared on the Grand Ole Opry 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.
1947 - Signed a lifetime exclusive songwriting contract with Acuff-Rose Publications.
1947 - It's a Girl!  Redd & Jean's first child was born - Lydia Nixon Stewart (named after Pee Wee King's wife- Lydia.)
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.)
1953 - It's a Boy!  Redd & Jean's second child was born - Colonel Henry Redd Stewart, Jr.
1954 - It's another Boy!  Redd & Jean's third child was born - William (Billy) Rae Stewart
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.

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Thank You

To all of the wonderful people who have come to this site to sign the petition for Redd's induction into the Country Music Hall Of Fame. We have reached our goal for signatures and will be keeping you informed of our progress in this endeavor.