Memories - Pee Wee King
Pee Wee King, who co-wrote the Tennessee Waltz and introduced electric instruments, horns and flashy Western costumes to the Grand Ole Opry, died Wednesday, March 8, 2000 at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky. He was 86.
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"Pee Wee's another one I'm gonna miss sorely," said Opry stalwart Stonewall Jackson, a longtime friend and touring partner of King's.
"That's about the only down side of being in this business, when you are on the road like you are, together for years and years with these people, they become like your family. It hurts just like losing a family member."
According to The Encyclopedia of Country Music, King wrote or co-wrote more than 400 songs. And his band, the Golden West Cowboys, set new professional standards in dress and musicianship for the then largely amateur Opry cast, which he joined in 1937.
"Pee Wee is best known as a writer, but this guy was also a real innovator," said Kyle Young, director of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
"To walk into the Opry in the late '30s and see the elaborate costumes and stage show and hear what was probably odd instrumentation at the time must have been a real eye-opener."
King wrote Tennessee Waltz with his fellow band member Redd Stewart in 1947. Although the Golden West Cowboys' recording of the song did well, a 1950 version by Patti Page did even better, selling 65 million copies. It became an official state song of Tennessee in 1965.
King and Stewart said in interviews through the years that Tennessee Waltz was written on an unfolded matchbox as they were riding in Stewart's truck.
Jackson, who said he toured with King and Stewart for 10 years, recalled that both were jokesters as well as writers.
"They were quite a team. They were a lot of fun to be around. They always had a lot of jokin' and kidding. It makes all those miles come a lot easier."
In addition to Waltz, King's Slow Poke was a No. 1 pop hit for 14 weeks in 1951.
The Encyclopedia credits King with more than 20 albums and more than 157 singles, most of them released during his 17-year tenure with RCA Victor.
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