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Youngest Old-Time Fiddle Player on Grand Ole Opry
Bill would spend the next two years appearing at the Opry and touring with Lonzo & Oscar. From 1949 to 1952 he was the featured fiddle player for “Little Jimmy Dickens And His Country Boys.”
A lot of memories were made for the youngster from Kentucky and opinions formed about performers well on the road to becoming legendary.
“Ernest Tubb was one of the nicest guys ever. Once he met you, he never forgot you. Roy Acuff was one prince of a guy, but Bill Monroe was the hardest person to work for. He would book shows 500 miles apart. Musicians would come in off the road saying they hadn’t taken their shoes off since they left.”
Bill came back from a week-long tour once to discover Ma UpChurch had rented his room to strangers. “I went upstairs to go to bed, and there were two women there. When I went to see if I could sleep with a friend, there were two more women in his bed; so we ended up sleeping downstairs on couches.”
The next morning he would learn the women called themselves “The Carter Family”, and they were in town hoping to gain sponsorship by Martha White Flour. “Maybelle and June were in the kitchen cooking breakfast when I woke up,” he said.
Later, after gaining fame, the Carter family would return to the boarding house with a girl Bill had never seen. June introduced her to him as one of her sisters. “I thought, boy, I’ve got to marry this girl and get into money. Then I found out she wasn’t a Carter and she had no money.”
Even though they weren’t rich or famous, Bill and Helen had the time to get to know each other and decide they were meant for each other.
They would go on to make beautiful music together for the next 55 years, but decided to pursue more stable careers outside the music industry. She died two years ago after sharing the stage with Bill for more than 20 years at the Museum of Appalachia near Knoxville for the Tennessee Fall Homecoming. He’ll make the trek to Tennessee again in October, but it won’t be the same.
“They say time heals everything, but it doesn’t. It’s impossible to replace 55 years of beautiful music in two years. “I think about Helen all the time, being up there in heaven with the Carter Family, Chet Atkins and all the musicians. They must be having one heck of a good time.”
Bill also laments the changes in the music he and his family grew up with. “The Opry that I knew no longer exists. There’s no truer statement than the line in the song, ‘There’s been a murder down on Music Row.’” “All I have now are memories.”
Columnist Don White has served as editor at several Kentucky newspapers. His Kentucky Traveler features are published throughout the state. Contact him at www.thekytraveler.com
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