Ernest Tubb in the Southern Quote

He was born on a cotton farm in Crisp, Texas. It was February 9th, 1914. As a young boy, he lived around the state working long hours alongside his share- cropping father, attending school only when a job wasn’t available. He was fourteen when he heard a Jimmie Rodgers recording. Fascinated with the man and his music, he set his heart on becoming a singer and began devoting his extra time to learning to sing and yodel and whatever precious funds he could spare on Jimmy Rogers records. It was a friend, Merwyn Buffington, himself a guitarist, who convinced the aspiring musician he needed to be able to play an instrument. Ernest bought a guitar and Merwyn taught him some chords.

Ernest was nineteen years old when he learned of Jimmie Rodgers’ death. Greatly saddened by his hero’s passing, the emotions galvanized him into pursuing his own dreams. He moved to San Antonio and began singing for peanuts on a local radio station, supplementing his income by digging ditches and clerking in a drugstore.

Three years later, aided by Jimmie Rogers’ widow who’d been touched by the sincerity of a letter he wrote her requesting an autographed photo of his hero, Ernest Tubb secured his first recording contract and released a tribute to his hero, “The Passing of Jimmie Rogers”. But it was his sixth record, “Walking the Floor Over You” that shot him to stardom.

Ernest Dale Tubb became a legend in Country Music with ninety-one country hits. Despite an ordinary voice with average musical ability, a man who started out by mimicking his hero became a Grand Old Opry star with his own unique and much-loved sound. He was known to his friends as E.T and to the world as the Texas Troubadour.

In today’s Southern Quote we pay tribute to the late great Ernest Tubb who once said, “When you call me a hillbilly, you’d better smile!”