Country Music fiddler singer Gordon Terry
Janice Busgal Brooks
after an extended illness.
Janice Busgal Brooks
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/060410/terry.shtml
Floyd Terry loved country music, so he made his oldest three sons learn
to play instruments. He taught them so well that it wasn't long before
they were playing at the Grand Ole Opry.
That was the start of a hall-of-fame career for fiddler and Lawrence
County native Gordon Terry, age 9 at his first Opry performance. His
career lasted almost four decades and included playing with legendary
country music performers.
Gordon Terry, who lived in Pulaski, Tenn., died Sunday morning at the
home of his daughter, Mitzi Winter, in Spring Hill, Tenn., after a
lengthy illness.
The 74-year-old Mr. Terry, namesake of Gordon Terry Parkway - Alabama
24 between Moulton and Decatur - was a member of the Country Music
Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville and the Alabama Music Hall of
Fame. He was a charter member of the Fiddlers' Hall of Fame.
Monroe, Haggard, Cash, Young
He played with Bill Monroe, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and Faron Young.
Cash once called Mr. Terry "a dear friend for years" and described him
as "one of a kind."
"They had their fans, but Gordon had his and he could really wake up a
crowd," said his brother Calvin of Trinity. "He could handle a crowd as
well anybody I've ever seen."
Gordon Terry summarized his career in a 1997 interview with THE DECATUR
DAILY: "It's all been having a big time and getting paid."
In 1941, Calvin said, his late father took the family, called "Floyd
Terry and His Young 'Uns," to Nashville. He thought they could just
show up at the Grand Ole Opry and play.
When they reached the Opry offices, a secretary showed them filing
cabinets full of applications on white paper for people wanting to play
on country's grandest stage.
"He asked the lady if every application was in white, and she said
yes," Calvin said. "So he asked for a red piece of crepe paper so his
application would stand out."
It did. By the time Floyd Terry got home to Moulton several days later,
Stella Terry, Gordon's mother, had a letter from Opry founder George
Dewey Hayes that the group was on the schedule for the next Saturday
night, June 6. Gordon was the youngest of the three sons and played
mandolin and fiddle.
"They had to rush back to Nashville," Calvin said.
Hayes liked them so much that he asked them to come back and play a
second Saturday night.
Fiddle champ at 14
Gordon won the Alabama Fiddling Championship in Birmingham at age 14.
Gordon was 18 years older than Calvin and 13 years older than his
sister, Jimmie Terry Lemmond, now of Priceville. Gordon was off touring
most of his younger siblings' lives.
"He called me 'Jim,' and he was always so gentle," Lemmond said. "He
always asked me a lot of questions, and he was very protective."
In 1949 at age 17, Gordon Terry married Virginia Russell of Decatur.
They were together for 57 years until his death and had two girls,
Winter and Rhonda Terry Thorson.
Goodbye, chicken plant
He also auditioned for Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in 1949. He walked
off his job at a chicken processing plant in Decatur when he got the
music job.
After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Gordon began a
career as a recording artist. His biggest hit was "Wild Honey,"
released in 1957.
He moved to California in 1958, and even tried his hand at acting. His
manager turned down an offer to play in the movie "Tarzan" while Gordon
was out on tour.
"The manager said the money wasn't good enough," Calvin said. "Gordon
was so mad."
Calvin said that his brother didn't always play bluegrass, and that he
liked to play ballads. He said he could get very lively on stage in his
prime.
Terrytown resort
In 1964 Gordon built Terrytown, a rustic resort and Western theme park
that featured top country artists in Loretto, Tenn. Running the resort
and touring became too much, however, and he sold it in just three
seasons.
He then spent time touring in California and Europe before returning to
Nashville, performing there until ill health forced him into
semi-retirement in 1983.
Thorson said he then became founder and chief executive officer in 1980
of Reunion Of Professional Entertainers, also known as ROPE. The hope
was to raise enough money to build a retirement home for entertainers
and those working behind the scenes in the entertainment business. His
dream lives on with the proposed Country Music Retirement Center.
"That was one of his pride and joys," Thorson said.
The state named Alabama 24 after Gordon Terry in the late 1980s.
Lemmond said she last heard her brother play at his 50th wedding
anniversary cookout with Barbara Mandrell.
Calvin said he took Gordon to Childersburg, Tenn., about four years ago
to play with his good friend well-known country singer Freddie Hart at
the Hart family reunion.
"My brother could really play," Calvin said.
Parkway Funeral Home is handling arrangements.