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Burl Ives was born on
April 14, 1909, to a Scottish-Irish farming family in Hunt,
Jasper County, Illinois. He was one of six children. Burl
began singing folk songs when he was four years old. Many of
the songs he learned from his tobacco-chewing, pipe-smoking
grandmother.
Burl enrolled at Eastern
Illinois State Teacher’s College in 1927, but dropped out in
1930 to see the country. He hitched rides from place to place,
learning folk songs from hoboes, cowboys and evangelists, many
of which he would record for posterity later. He did odd jobs
and sang for sustenance.
Burl began doing Summer stock
in the late ‘30s, which led to a job with CBS radio in 1940.
The songs he learned on the road came in handy with his
performance in “Wayfaring Stranger.” He hit the big-time and
is best remembered for his role of Big Daddy in the 1958 “Cat
On A Hot Tin Roof.” He won an Oscar for supporting actor in
“The Big Country,” also in 1958. In 1964 he was a singer and
narrator in “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which continues
to repeat nearly every year.
Burl Ives reached the peak of
his popularity in the 1960s with recorded hits on both Popular
and Country charts. He recorded over 30 albums for Decca and
another dozen for Columbia. His greatest hits include “Big
Rock Candy Mountain,” “Blue Tail Fly,” “On Top Of Old Smokey,”
“A Little Bitty Tear,” “Funny Way Of Laughing,” “Holly Jolly
Christmas,” and “Lavender Blue (Dilly, Dilly).”
Burl officially retired at the
age of 80 and moved to Anacortes, Washington, where he
continued to do benefit performances. He died of cancer on
April 14, 1995, his birthday, at the age of 85.
Dusty Owens
TCM Radio News
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