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Hawhaw Hawkins to be included in W.Va. Music Hall of Fame

November 19, 2009 @ 12:00 AM

DAVE LAVENDER

The Herald-Dispatch

Grand Ole Opry star Jean Shepard celebrates her 54th anniversary Saturday on the world's most famous country radio and TV show.

But you couldn't pay her enough money to keep her in Nashville that night.

Shepard will be in West Virginia, the home state of her late husband and Grand Ole Opry star Hawkshaw Hawkins. She will be accepting the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame Award for Hawk, a Huntington native country star who is one of the seven Mountain State native artists being inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

The ceremony, hosted by Cross Lanes native country star Kathy Mattea and Nashville harmonica legend Charlie McCoy, will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston.

The first female performer to chalk up 50 years on the Opry, Shepard will be performing one of Hawk's signature songs, "Sunny Side of the Mountain." Don Robin, their oldest son and named after good Opry friends Don Gibson and Marty Robbins, will be singing "Rattlesnake Daddy," and their youngest son, Harold "Hawk Jr.," will be singing "Lonesome 7-7203."

Although Hawkins racked up four top 10 singles starting with "Pan American" in 1948, "Lonesome 7-7203" was Hawk's only No. 1 single, appearing on the charts just three days before his death.

Hawkins died on March 5, 1963, along with fellow Opry members Cowboy Copas, Patsy Cline and others, when their Piper Comanche went down in Camden, Tenn., returning from a benefit concert.

Hawkins was to have flown commercial but when he found out Billy Walker needed to get home for an emergency, he gave his ticket to him instead.

The first female country singer to sell a million records, Shepard said her late husband is much deserving of the recognition of his home state.

"Hawk has done a lot for country music and for West Virginia," said Shepard, who married Hawkins in 1960. "I don't know anybody else who they could put in that would be more deserving. You know Saturday is my 76th birthday and my 54th anniversary on the Grand Ole Opry. I am bypassing my 54th anniversary to come to West Virginia to accept Hawk's award because I think it is that important."

The son of Icie Graham Hawkins and Alex Hawkins, who retired from Kerr Glass in Altizer, Harold Franklin Hawkins always loved music.

Influenced by folks in the Huntington's west end such as John Moore and Huntington mayor Kim Wolfe's mother, who used to play music with Hawkshaw when he was young, Hawk traded five rabbits for a homemade guitar then taught himself to play at age 13.

By about age 16, Hawkins was heard for the first time on radio, WCMI in Ashland. Hawkins won a talent contest on WSAZ and got a job at $15 per week.

Drawing his nickname from a comic strip detective, he and friend Clarence Jack teamed up to form "Hawkshaw and Sherlock," a duo who played regularly on WSAZ.

With music calling, Hawkins left Huntington High School in his senior year. He and Sherlock traveled to Massachusetts in 1941 with a Wild West show providing the music.

They were going great before World War II called and both served their country.

Jack, who passed away last year, came back injured and unable to perform. Hawkins, who spent 15 months of combat duty including Battle of the Bulge, came back from the war and signed onto the Wheeling Jamboree and King Records in 1945.

"I know that (Clarence Jack) always said if that hadn't happened, he would have been right with him," said Hawkshaw's sister Mary Berry in a previous article in The Herald-Dispatch. Jack is pictured with Hawkins at the Harveytown Elementary display. "They were real good together."

Before joining the Opry in 1955 Hawkins, who blended honky-tonk, country, boogie and blues, had honed his act to perfection on the Wheeling Jamboree from 1946 to 1954.

Standing 6-foot-6 and able to play any traditional acoustic instrument with strings, Hawkins had personality to spare and was aptly tabbed "Eleven and a Half Yards of Personality."

He also had an amazing recall and sincere love of his fans, said veteran fiddler, Doc Reichle. Reichle grew up in Pennsylvania listening intently to Hawkshaw and his band filled with such characters as Jiggs Lemsley on steel guitar, fiddler Eddie Miller and bass player Swanee River on WWVA-AM in Wheeling in the 1940s.

Reichle said as a boy his dream came true when Hawkshaw and the band played a show at the Cross Keys Theater in Cross Keys, Pa., on Thanksgiving. Arriving early they found out the band's upright bass was damaged during traveling. Reichle and his folks went home to get his stand-up bass for the band.

After the show the Reichles invited Hawk and his band back to the house in nearby Warrington, Pa., for Thanksgiving dinner. Reichle got to play his old upright bass with a broom handle for a peg with his country music idol who played his Silvertone guitar.

Not having a camera with a flash and since it was getting dark, the Reichle's asked if the band could stop by the next morning for a picture. They figured they would never see the band again.

"Would you believe about 10:30 a.m. we were all working over where my folks had a flower business and in comes this long black Cadillac. They jumped out, and we took their photograph and then they went on their way," Reichle said.

Oddly enough, the story of a fan and his hero didn't end there.

Still a big Hawkshaw fan, Reichle didn't see Hawk again until about 10 years later when he was in medical school in Philadelphia. The worn-out medical intern was walking in a bit of a daze down the street when he perked up. He saw Hawk's bus parked outside a western clothing store and went in to say hello.

"I wasn't a kid anymore, and I was all beat up by everything from working all of those hours. I open the door of that store and Hawkshaw turns around and looks at me and says, 'How are you?' I would never forget the words. He came over from the counter and shook my hand. I said, 'I am so surprised you remember me.' He said, 'Well, sure.' Sammy Barnhart was his guitar player and he said, 'Sammy you remember this man?' Sammy smiled and said no. He said, 'I will give you a clue, we played his house on Thanksgiving Day after a concert.' I had a picture in my wallet, this photo of me and the band in front of the house, so I pulled the picture out and was going to give it to Sammy. Hawkshaw grabbed it out of my hand and he said, 'Do you remember his name?' I'll give you another clue, it's Fritz.' I was ready to drop to the floor. He's met tens of thousands of people over a period of 10 years and he remembered me."

Shepard said she is glad the day has arrived when folks in West Virginia are remembering Hawkshaw.

His two living sisters, Mary Berry and Leona Davis, who both live in Cabell County, accepted his plaque for induction into Huntington's Wall of Fame earlier this fall. They will join Shepard at Saturday's ceremony.

Shepard, whose tell-all memoir "Down Through the Years" is coming out soon, said she wants folks to know that Hawkins was one of the most multi-talented country performers she's ever seen.

"A lot of people don't know that Hawk was a great artist in areas other than singing," she said of her late husband. "He was an artist with a bullwhip and with a rifle and with pistols. He was very good, and we had like a wild west show and he would demonstrate his abilities. Nobody knows this but when he was coming home that night he was killed, three days later he was leaving for California where he was trying out for the scout part for the TV show 'Wagon Train." Ward Bond had called him and asked him to try out for the part and he was real excited about it, but it didn't happen. I am sure he would have gotten the part. He was just a good fit. He didn't just sing but he was an all-around entertainer and he was a man's man. He loved to hunt and fish and he was just a super nice gentleman. Eleven and a half yards of personality -- that is how they would introduce him. He had 11 yards of personality he really did."

If You Go

WHAT: The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame's third induction ceremony will be hosted by Cross Lanes native Kathy Mattea and Fayette County harmonica great Charlie McCoy. Filled with live music, the ceremony will be taped for later broadcast by WV Public Television.

WHERE: The Culture Center Theater in Charleston

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21

HOW MUCH: General admission tickets are $37.50. Preferred tickets are $250 each and include admittance to the Governor's Reception before the event.

GET TIX: Available at Taylor Books and through the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame Web site at www.wvmusichalloffame.com and by calling 304-342-4412.

THE PRESENTERS: Include '07 inductee Bill Withers (Don Redman), actor Fred Willard (Frank Devol) harmonica player Phil Wiggins (Nat Reese), Roger Hoard, longtime guitarist with the WWVA Jamboree and mentor to Brad Paisley (Doc and Chickie Williams), country singer Jean Shepard (Hawkshaw Hawkins), Tim and Mollie O'Brien (Bailes Brothers).

THE INDUCTEES: In the "living" category, the musicians are: Doc and Chickie Williams, the Bailes Brothers and Nat Reese. In the "deceased" category, Huntington native Hawkshaw Hawkins, Don Redman and Frank DeVol.

ON THE WEB: Go online at www.wvmusichalloffame.com for more info and to find out how you can get involved with the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

Submitted photo

Hawkshaw Hawkins is a Huntington native and Grand Ole Opry star who was killed in a 1963 plane crash with Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas. He will be inducted into the 2009 class of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.

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