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Woodward
Maurice (Tex)
Ritter,
Western singer
and movie
star, son of
James Everett
and Elizabeth
(Matthews)
Ritter, was
born on
January 12,
1905, in
Murvaul,
Panola County.
Ritter's
signature as a
student at the
University of
Texas shows
that he
spelled his
first name
Woodard (not
Woodward), and
a delayed
birth
certificate
filed in
Panola County
in 1942 also
shows the
spelling
Woodard;
however, all
printed
sources use
the spelling
Woodward. He
moved to
Nederland in
Jefferson
County, to
live with a
sister, and
graduated from
South Park
High School in
nearby
Beaumont. He
attended the
University of
Texas from
1922 to 1927,
spending one
year in the
law school
there,
1925-26; as a
student he was
influenced by
J. Frank
Dobie, Oscar
J. Fox, and
John A.
Lomaxqqv-who
encouraged his
study of
authentic
cowboy songs.
Ritter, more
interested in
music, did not
take a degree;
for a time he
was president
of the Men's
Glee Club at
the
university. He
also attended
Northwestern
University for
one year in
1929 before he
began singing
western and
mountain songs
on Radio
Station KPRC
in Houston in
1929. The
following year
he was with a
musical troupe
touring the
South and the
Midwest; by
1931 he was in
New York and
had joined the
Theatre Guild.
His role in Green
Grow the
Lilacs
(predecessor
to the musical
Oklahoma)
drew attention
to the young
"cowboy," and
he became the
featured
singer with
the Madison
Square Garden
Rodeo in 1932.
Further
recognition
led to his
starring in
one of the
first western
radio programs
to be featured
in New York,
"The Lone Star
Rangers." His
early appeal
to New Yorkers
as the
embodiment of
a Texas
cowboy, in
spite of his
roots in the
rural southern
music
tradition,
undoubtedly
led to his
first movie
contract in
1936.
Appearing
in eighty-five
movies,
including
seventy-eight
westerns,
Ritter was
ranked among
the top ten
money-making
stars in
Hollywood for
six years.
While his
movies owed
much to the
genre begun by
other singing
cowboys (such
as Gene
Autry), Ritter
used
traditional
folk songs in
his movies
rather than
the modern
"western"
ditties; films
such as Arizona
Frontier
(1940), The
Utah Trail
(1938), and Roll
Wagons Roll
(1939) earned
Ritter a
reputation for
ambitious
plots and
vigorous
action not
always found
in low-budget
westerns. Tex
Ritter's
successful
recordings,
which began
with "Rye
Whiskey" in
1931, included
over the years
"High Noon"
(1952), "Boll
Weevil"
(1945),
"Wayward
Wind,"
"Hillbilly
Heaven," and
"You Are My
Sunshine"
(1946).
Ranch
Party,
a television
series
featuring
Ritter, ran
from 1959 to
1962. He was
married to
Dorothy Fay
Southworth on
June 14, 1941;
they were the
parents of two
sons. His
youngest son,
John, became
well-known
through his
television
shows,
"Three's
Company" and
"Hearts
Afire." In
1964 Tex
Ritter was
elected to the
Country Music
Hall of Fame,
only the fifth
person to be
so honored; he
also served as
president of
the Country
Music
Association
from 1963 to
1965. In 1970
he made an
unsuccessful
bid for the
United States
Senate seat
from
Tennessee. He
died in
Nashville,
Tennessee, on
January 2,
1974; funeral
services were
held in
Nederland,
Texas, and he
was buried at
Oak Bluff
Memorial Park
in nearby Port
Neches.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Johny Bond, The
Tex Ritter
Story
(New York:
Chappell Music
Company,
1976). Comprehensive
Country Music
Encyclopedia
(New York:
Times Books,
1994). Movie
Highlights of
America's Most
Beloved
Cowboy, Tex
Ritter
(Keokuk, Iowa:
R. A. Tucker,
1971). Melvin
Shestack,
The Country
Music
Encyclopedia
(New York:
Crowell,
1979).
Vertical
Files, Barker
Texas History
Center,
University of
Texas at
Austin.
- Handbook
of Texas
Online,
s.v. ","
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/RR/fri25.html (accessed
March 3,
2008).
(NOTE: "s.v."
stands for sub
verbo, "under
the word.")
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