Wyatt Merle Kilgore (August 9, 1934 – February 6, 2005)
was an American singer, songwriter, and
manager
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities ...
. Born in Chickasha, Oklahoma, he was raised in
Shreveport, Louisiana. At the time of his death, he was the personal manager of
Hank Williams Jr.
Randall Hank Williams (born May 26, 1949), known professionally as Hank Williams Jr. or Bocephus, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of southern rock, blues, and country. He is the son of ...
["Country Legend Merle Kilgore Dies." ''Billboard''. February 7, 2005](_blank)
Accessed June 2, 2016
Early life
Although born in
Chickasha, Oklahoma
Chickasha is a city in and the county seat of Grady County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 16,036 at the 2010 census. Chickasha is home to the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. The city is named for and strongly connecte ...
, United States, Kilgore was raised in
Shreveport, Louisiana.
He was the son of Wyatt and Gladys B. (Clowers) Kilgore. As a boy of 14 he carried the guitar for
Hank Williams at the
Louisiana Hayride
''Louisiana Hayride'' was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of the ...
, beginning a close relationship with the Williams family that would last three generations. He attended school at
C. E. Byrd High School
C. E. Byrd, a Blue Ribbon School, is a high school in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States. In continuous operation since its establishment in 1925, C. E. Byrd is also the eighth-largest high school in the United States of America as of Februa ...
and then
Louisiana Tech University
Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research acti ...
.
Career
Kilgore went on to a career as a
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
recording artist but had great success as a songwriter, co-writing with
June Carter
June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the second of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the third of five months to have a length of less than 31 days. June contains the summer solstice in t ...
the song "
Ring of Fire
The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. The Ring o ...
",
first recorded by her sister
Anita Carter
Ina Anita Carter (March 31, 1933 – July 29, 1999) was an American singer who played upright bass, guitar, and autoharp. She performed with her sisters, Helen and June, and her mother, Maybelle, initially under the name The Carter Sisters an ...
and later by June's future husband,
Johnny Cash (Kilgore was a distant cousin of the Carter sisters through their maternal grandmother, Margaret Kilgore Addington); June, later known as June Carter Cash, would record her own version of the song for her album ''
Press On'', released in 1999. He also co-wrote
Claude King
Claude King (February 5, 1923 – March 7, 2013) was an American country music singer and songwriter, best known for his million selling 1962 hit, "Wolverton Mountain".
Biography
King was born in Keithville in southern Caddo Parish south ...
's big
crossover
Crossover may refer to:
Entertainment
Albums and songs
* ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album)
* ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987
* ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album)
* ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album)
* ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...
hit, "
Wolverton Mountain
"Wolverton Mountain" is a country music song and 1962 crossover hit that established Claude King's career as an American country singer-songwriter. The song was a rewrite of the original version by Merle Kilgore, which was based on a real person n ...
".
Amongst others, he also penned "Johnny Reb" for
Johnny Horton and the
Tommy Roe
Thomas David "Tommy" Roe (born May 9, 1942) is a retired American rock and pop singer-songwriter.
Best-remembered for his hits "Sheila" (1962) and " Dizzy" (1969), Roe was "widely perceived as one of the archetypal bubblegum artists of the late ...
pop music hit, "
The Folk Singer
"The Folk Singer" is a folk song, written by Charles E. Daniels and American musician Johnny Cash and first recorded by Cash in 1968. It is also known as "Folk Singer" or, less often, "The Singer".
Allegedly about American pop singer Tommy Roe ...
". In the early 1960s, he toured with Cash as part of his package show. He stood as Johnny Cash's best man at his wedding to June Carter.
Business and music interests
A resident of Paris, Tennessee, from 1986, he was also a prominent member of the business community. On April 7, 1986, he was named Executive Vice President and head of management of Hank Williams Jr. Enterprises.
In addition to managing
Hank Williams Jr
Randall Hank Williams (born May 26, 1949), known professionally as Hank Williams Jr. or Bocephus, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of southern rock, blues, and country. He is the son of ...
's career (along with that of Hank Jr's
Bama Band), Kilgore managed a number of other artists from his Nashville office. Kilgore also had a number of successful business ventures and held numerous leadership positions. Kilgore's prominence in the country music community had grown through his involvement as Vice President of the
Country Music Association, and he had served on the CMA board of directors. Also contributing to his success was his position as President of both the Nashville Songwriter's Foundation as well as the Nashville Songwriter's Association International. In 1987, he was named an honorary State Senator for Tennessee. In 1993, Kilgore was inducted into the Louisiana Hall of Fame in
Lafayette, Louisiana, and into Shreveport's
Byrd High School Hall of Fame.
In 1998, Kilgore received the Legendary Songwriters' Award from the North American County Music Association. He hosted and performed at NSAI's Tin Pan South Legendary Songwriter's Acoustic Concert and was presented an award honoring him as "one of the world's outstanding songwriters." Kilgore had also served two terms as President of ROPE, International (Reunion of Professional Entertainers, Int.).
Organizations and honors
Kilgore was a long-time member of the
Academy of Country Music
The Academy of Country Music (ACM) was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Among the founders were Eddie Miller, Tommy Wiggins, and Mickey and Chris Christensen. They wanted to promote country music ...
and an active member of the
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...
. As well as belonging to the NSAI and the American Federation of Musicians, he served as a board member for several organizations including the Hank Williams Museum in
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...
, the
Texas Country Music Hall of Fame
The Texas Country Music Hall of Fame, located in Carthage in Panola County in East Texas, honors those who have made outstanding contributions to country music and were born in the state of Texas. This includes singers, songwriters, disc jocke ...
and the
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 ...
Museum, both in
Carthage, Texas
Carthage is a city and the county seat of Panola County, Texas, United States. This city is situated in deep East Texas, 20 miles west of the Louisiana state line. Its population was 6,569 at the 2020 census.
History
Carthage was founded in 1847 ...
. He also directed the operations of two offices, Hank Williams Jr. Enterprises in Paris, Tennessee and Merle Kilgore Management in
Nashville, where he managed several other artists, Joe Sins being his most prominent. In 1998, Kilgore was inducted into the
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame was established in 1970 by the Nashville Songwriters Foundation, Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. A non-profit organization, its objective is to honor and preserve the songwriting legacy that is ...
.
Death
On February 6, 2005, Merle Kilgore died from heart failure while in a Mexican hospital undergoing experimental treatments for lung cancer,
and was interred in
Hendersonville Memory Gardens
Hendersonville Memory Gardens is a cemetery located at 353 East Main Street in Hendersonville, Tennessee, United States, a few miles northeast of Nashville. Formerly known as Woodlawn Memorial Park East, it is the burial site of Johnny Cash as w ...
in
Hendersonville, Tennessee
Hendersonville is the largest city in Sumner County, Tennessee, on Old Hickory Lake. The population was 61,753 at the 2020 census.
Hendersonville is the fourth-largest city in the Nashville metropolitan area after Nashville, Murfreesboro, ...
. Kilgore was survived by his wife, Judy, three daughters, two sons, eight grandchildren and a great granddaughter.
Singles
References
External links
Official website*
*
*
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilgore, Merle
1934 births
2005 deaths
People from Chickasha, Oklahoma
Musicians from Shreveport, Louisiana
C. E. Byrd High School alumni
Louisiana Tech University alumni
People from Paris, Tennessee
American male singer-songwriters
American country singer-songwriters
Country musicians from Oklahoma
Imperial Records artists
Starday Records artists
D Records artists
Writers from Shreveport, Louisiana
20th-century American singers
Singer-songwriters from Tennessee
Singer-songwriters from Oklahoma
Singer-songwriters from Louisiana
Country musicians from Tennessee
Country musicians from Louisiana
20th-century American male singers