Beech Tree News Network

We lost country artist George Jones a few days ago.  Just as Roy Rogers was known in the trade as a “trick yodeler,” “The Possum” (as he was known to his friends) could have been known as a trick vocalist.  George could do circus-like acrobatics with his voice.

George Jones had what has come to be known as the “hook.”  It is an intangible, not physical, but in the mind … hard to define.  With woman-intuition, first wife Bett describes it perfectly: “It’s not a particularly good voice, but you want to listen to it.”  Louie Armstrong and Hank Williams Sr. would fit that … as well as Willie Nelson.  Without the hook they would just have been men with ordinary voices.

In high school, Marylin Dorris was homely to look at, but pretty as a doll, smart as a whip, and funny as a dog.  She had the hook.  All the boys fell in love with Marylin.  Me too.  I asked to kiss her when we were freshmen.  She said no … “We’re too young for that.”  I “fell into a burning ring of fire ..”  We were on the back of the bus.  I had HORMONES.  Webster calls this “invisible enrapture.”  I had it bad.

My gosh.  I got to thinking about young hormones and almost completely forgot about George Jones.

I first saw George in about 1956 or ’57.  He and his band performed during intermission at a rodeo.  Bett and I were still in the Air Force.  He had a flat-top haircut and his arm was in a cast.  I remember thinking he was a fair-enough country singer; maybe he could make a living at it.  He did … and more.

George was born in Saratoga, Texas.  His mother played piano at the local church; his daddy was an amateur guitarist.

When George got his first guitar at age nine, he began playing and singing on the streets of Beaumont, Texas, and later at local venues.  His early beginnings were cut short by the Korean War where he served as a combat Marine.  When he came home he worked local gigs and supplemented his budding career as a house painter.

George had his first big break with a No. 1 hit called WHITE LIGHTNING.  Afterward followed a string of hits.  In 1980, after the mega-hit HE STOPPED LOVING HER TODAY, George won the CMA Male Vocalist of the Year award.  Then again in 1981.

Two George and Tammy Wynette songs, GOLDEN RING and NEAR YOU, both chart-toppers in 1976, are still popular among country classics.  Why?  They weren’t junk; they are still good music.  I don’t really have a name for what they are trying to pass-off as country music today.  I don’t hear it.

Like too many entertainers, George crawled into the bottle and never quite made it out.

The “Possum” was 81.

“There’s just one place for me, near you …”

Kindest regards ….