Red River Dave McEnery (born David Largus McEnery) (December 15, 1914 – January 15, 2002) was an American artist, musician, and writer of

topical A topical medication is a medication that is applied to a particular place on or in the body. Most often topical medication means application to body surfaces such as the skin or mucous membranes to treat ailments via a large range of classes ...

songs. He was born in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, United States. He got the nickname "Red River Dave" because he enjoyed singing "Red River Valley" in high school. He was the leader of The Swift Cowboys.

Career

As a teenager, he appeared regularly on KABC radio. Dave began his career by singing,

yodeling Yodeling (also jodeling) is a form of singing which involves repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register (or "chest voice") and the high-pitch head register or falsetto. The English word ''yodel'' is derived from the ...

, and performing

rope trick The term ''rope trick'' may refer to: * Magic trick, any trick involving a rope ** Indian rope trick, a trick involving causing a rope to appear to levitate in the air and then climbing up it * Nylon rope trick, a demonstration of the chemical princ ...

s at

rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working va ...

s. In 1936, he broadcast a live singing performance from the Goodyear Blimp over

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

AM radio AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transm ...

station

WQAM WQAM (560 AM, "AM 560 Sports") is a radio station in Miami, Florida. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts a sports talk format carrying a mixture of local and CBS Sports Radio programming. Its studios are located in Audacy's Miami office on Nort ...

in Miami. His career really took off with his song "

Amelia Earhart's Last Flight "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight" is a song written by Red River Dave McEnery shortly after Amelia Earhart's disappearance. It has been believed to be the first song ever performed on commercial television (at the 1939 World's Fair). It was copyri ...

", broadcast in a pioneer television broadcast from the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchas ...

. He worked for radio station

WOR (AM) WOR (710 AM) is a 50,000-watt class A clear-channel AM radio station owned by iHeartMedia and licensed to New York, New York. The station airs a mix of local and syndicated talk radio shows, primarily from co-owned Premiere Networks, includi ...

in New York City. He was a radio personality in border radio for station

XERF XHRF-FM () and XERF-AM () are radio stations in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico. Originally only on the AM band, XERF is a Mexican Class A clear-channel station transmitting with of power. Now branded as ''La Poderosa'', XHRF-FM and XERF-A ...

. In the latter part of his life, he became a well-known painter of Texas landscapes and Western Americana themes and was often known to paint the backs of his used guitars.

Cinema

He worked in several

westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

as a

singing cowboy A singing cowboy was a subtype of the archetypal cowboy hero of early Western films. It references real-world campfire side ballads in the American frontier, the original cowboys sang of life on the trail with all the challenges, hardships, and d ...

, including ''

Swing in the Saddle ''Swing in the Saddle'' is a 1944 American Western musical comedy film directed by Lew Landers and starring Jane Frazee. Cast * Jane Frazee as Penny Morrow * Guinn Williams as "Tiny" Baldwin * Slim Summerville as Northup "Slim" Bayliss * Sall ...

'' (1944), ''Hidden Valley Days'' (1948) and ''Echo Ranch'' (1948).

Publications

* *

Songs

Red River Dave's songs have been recorded by

Hank Snow Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999) was a Canadian-American country music artist. Most popular in the 1950s, he had a career that spanned more than 50 years, he recorded 140 albums and charted more than 85 singles on t ...

and

Tex Ritter Woodward Maurice Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was a pioneer of American country music, a popular singer and actor from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John, grandsons Jason and ...

. * "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight" 1937 * "The Blind Boy's Dog" ("I'd Like To Give My Dog To Uncle Sam") * "The Red Deck of Cards" 1954 * "Ballad Of

Emmett Till Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941August 28, 1955) was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery ...

" * "The Ballad Of Francis Powers" 1960 * "Trial of Francis Powers" 1960 * "The Flight Of Apollo Eleven" 1969 * " The California Hippy Murders" * "The Ballad Of

Patty Hearst Patricia Campbell Hearst (born February 20, 1954) is the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known for the events following her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was found a ...

" * "The Ballad of

Three Mile Island 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * ''Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

" 1979 * "Shame is the Middle Name Of

Exxon ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...

" * "Atlanta's Black Children" 1981 * "The Pine-Tarred Bat, the Ballad of George Brett" 1983 * "The Clinging Lovers of Kenya" 1983 * "Night That

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

Rode With

Santa Claus Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a Legend, legendary figure originating in Western Christianity, Western Christian culture who is said to Christmas gift-bringer, bring ...

" 1984

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McEnery, David 1914 births 2002 deaths People from San Antonio American male composers 20th-century American composers American country guitarists American country singer-songwriters American folk guitarists American male guitarists American folk singers American male singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Texas Mexican radio presenters Yodelers 20th-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Texas Country musicians from Texas 20th-century American male singers