MARTY ROBBINS 1930 HOME This is a 2008 photo of the same empty lot where the Jack Robinson family lived at the time of the 1930 census. East of downtown Phoenix, at the corner of 17th and East Madison Streets, Jack constructed a shelter consisting of one tent for sleeping quarters and another for the […]
Bonanza was our favorite television show in the early 1960s, and my sister and I decided to write a letter to the local TV station to ask for a photo of the Cartwrights–Ben, Hoss, Adam, and Little Joe. I don’t remember whether Kayo (age 10) or I (age 12) came up with the idea, but […]
Good afternoon, I am retired Navy Captain Diane Diekman, and my relationship with the Navy Memorial goes back to the time when the Lone Sailor was standing all by himself outside. My greatest day here at the Navy Memorial was my retirement ceremony in 2004. I’d always had a dream of having a retirement ceremony […]
MARTY ROBBINS ON HIS NASCAR RACING In a 1975 interview, Marty said, “I told people I was going to quit, but I’m not really going to quit. I don’t think people would really want me to quit, maybe because it’s something I enjoy doing. I wouldn’t want somebody to quit playing golf if they liked […]
BILL JOHNSON Bill Johnson played steel guitar for Marty Robbins from 1960-1974, with a two-year break in the early Sixties when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He was one of the first people to provide me with research material and his memories when I started working on Marty’s biography. Bill talked about Marty’s […]
Today I attended a Mary Kay training session conducted by a multimillionaire national sales director (NSD). She spoke on mental attitude and how we become what we think about. Although I’d never heard of her, I could see why the others had excitedly waited for her visit. She was knowledgeable and motivating and responded well […]
This periodic newsletter commemorates the lives of Faron Young and Marty Robbins. Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story was published in 2007 by the University of Illinois Press, and I’m currently writing Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins for publication in 2012. REMEMBERING MARCH 5, 1963 Billy Grammar and Faron Young were in […]
FARON’S BIRTHDAY Faron Young was born 77 years ago today in a little two bedroom rental house in Shreveport, Louisiana. His sister Dorothy remembered standing out in front and telling people who came by, “We got a new baby brother.” She told me, “All the kids in the neighborhood liked to come over and play […]
MARTY ROBBINS AT THE DAYTONA 500 February brings NASCAR’s Daytona 500 race. Marty Robbins ran that race in 1973 and 1975 and was a broadcast commentator in 1976. He described the first race as follows: “I was gonna pass the guy on the inside, and coming off the fourth turn there’s a bad hump, and […]
FARON YOUNG AUDIO BOOK I’ve been talking with a production company about publishing Live Fast, Love Hard as an audio book. I would pay production costs and then earn royalties on sales. The company would distribute and sell the book via the Internet, both as an 8-CD set and as a downloadable e-book. I’m wondering […]