JOHNNY HORTON

JOHNNY HORTON (ARTIST BIOGRAPHY)

Johnny Horton (April 30, 1925 – November 5, 1960) was an American country music singer who was most famous for his semi-folk, so-called "saga songs". With them, he had several major crossover hits, most notably in 1959 with "The Battle of New Orleans" which won the 1960 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. The song won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award and in 2001 was named number 333 of the Songs of the Century. In 1960, Horton had two other crossover hits with "Sink the Bismarck" and "North to Alaska".

Horton was also a rockabilly singer, and was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame

Horton was born John Gale Horton in Los Angeles but raised in the town of Rusk in East Texas. His family trekked back and forth from California often as migrant fruit pickers but always returned to the Rusk/Gallatin area in Texas. After graduation from Gallatin High School in 1944, he attended on a basketball scholarship the Methodist-affiliated Lon Morris College (then called "Lon Morris Junior College") in Jacksonville, Texas, the oldest junior college in the state. Although he did not graduate from Lon Morris or any other college, he later attended Seattle University. Thereafter, he worked in California and Alaska. He returned to Texas and won a talent contest hosted by then-radio announcer Jim Reeves at the Reo Palm Isle club in Longview, the seat of Gregg County.

In 1950 he began singing country music on KXLA,Pasadena, Texas, and then proceeded to Cliffie Stone's "Hometown Jamboree" on KLAC-TV. In September 1953, he married Billie Jean Jones, who, in late 1952, had also been married to country music star Hank Williams for two and a half months prior to his death. Horton's first marriage to Donna Cook ended in a divorce, granted in Rusk. With Billie Jean, Johnny had two daughters, Yanina (Nina) and Melody. Billie Jean's daughter, Jerry, was also part of the family.

He joined the “Louisiana Hayride” in 1955 and performed under the name the Singing Fisherman. Companies he recorded with included Mercury, Dot, and Columbia. Horton was known for his versatility, but his specialty was honky-tonk. In 1956 he had his first hit, "Honky Tonk Man." His first number-one recording in the country was "When It's Springtime in Alaska," released in 1959. At that time both country and popular-music radio stations began playing his music.

Horton was killed instantly in a head-on collision with a drunk driver on Highway 79 at Milano, Texas while he was returning home from a performance at the Skyline Club in Austin on November 5, 1960. Johnny Horton reportedly had experienced premonitions several months before his own death about the possibility of dying in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. He always said that if he was in a head-on situation to drive into the ditch. His accident took place on a bridge so there was no ditch for which to head.

Horton is buried in the Hillcrest Cemetery in Haughton east of Bossier City, Louisiana. He loved fishing as much, if not more, than singing and was once billed as "The Singing Fisherman." His favorite fishing holes abound through the Piney Woods of East Texas and northern Louisiana.

Johnny Horton will forever be remembered for his major contribution to both country and rockabilly music. He was a real easy going bloke who was happiest when fishing or just messing about and that's perhaps how he should be remembered. Claude King summed him up best when he quoted Horton telling him "Don't ever worry, Ace, you'll get a wrinkle".

(info mainly Wikipedia)