Ernest Dale Tubb (February 9, 1914 - September 6, 1984), nicknamed the Texas Troubadour, was an American singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of country music. His biggest career hit song "Walking the Floor Over You" (1941) marked the rise of the honky-tonk style of music.

Biography

Tubb was born on a cotton farm near Crisp, Texas (now a ghost town). His father was a sharecropper, so Tubb spent his youth working on farms thoughout the state. He was inspired by Jimmie Rodgers and spent his spare time learning to sing, yodel, play the guitar. At the age of nineteen, he got a job as a singer on a San Antonio radio station. The pay was low, so Tubb also dug ditches for the Works Progress Administration and then clerked at a drug store.

In 1936, Tubb contacted Jimmie Rodgers’s widow (Rodger's died in 1933) to ask for an autographed photo. A friendship developed and she was instrumental in getting Tubb a recording contract with RCA. His first two records were unsuccessful. A tonsillectomy in 1939 effected his singing style, so he turned to songwriting. In 1940, he switched to Decca records to try singing again and it was his sixth Decca release with the single "Walking the Floor Over You" that brought Tubb to stardom.

Tubb joined the Grand Ole Opry in February, 1943 and put together his band, the "Texas Troubadours." He remained a regular on the radio show for four decades, and hosted the Midnight Jamboree after it. In 1947, Tubb headlined the first Grand Ole Opry show presented in Carnegie Hall in New York City. In 1965, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and in 1970, Tubb was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Ernest Tubb died of emphysema at Baptist Hospital in Nashville. He is buried in Nashville's Hermitage Memorial Gardens. Modern fans may know Tubb primarily for the Ernest Tubb Record Shop in Nashville, Tennessee, which opened in May, 1947 and has been a meeting place for country music stars and fans for decades.

References

"Ernest Tubb". Country Music Hall of Fame. Retrieved Apr. 21, 2005.