Post by Busgaljan on Mar 6, 2004 13:33:02 GMT -5
Posted by By JOHN WARREN, The Virginian-Pilot on March 06, 2004 at 09:31:01:
Post Script: In 89 years, singer did what many only dream of
By JOHN WARREN, The Virginian-Pilot
© March 6, 2004
CHESAPEAKE — The way the story goes, Willie Phelps was almost Roy Rogers, name and all.
Republic Pictures had put out a call for a singing cowboy, and Phelps was on his way to a tryout. A young singer named Len Slye snuck in without an appointment and won the role. His name was changed to Roy Rogers.
In the mid-1930s, after achieving local notoriety on WTAR Radio, Phelps left for Hollywood with his brothers Norman and Earl – the other two-thirds of the country music trio Norman Phelps and the Virginia Rounders. The Phelps Brothers – Willie on guitar, Earl on fiddle and Norman on stand-up bass – sang in several movies and starred in several movie shorts.
They rubbed elbows with the likes of Rogers, Gene Autry and Tex Ritter. The brothers spent one long afternoon in a bar with Willie’s idol, Tom Mix.
“Willie and his brothers, they did everything in their lifetime the rest of us dream about,” said Ed Beard, Phelps’ son-in-law and a musician.
William Thomas Phelps Sr.
1914 -2004
A celebration of Willie’s life, open to the public, will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Eagle’s Club No. 795, 516 Post Ave., Chesapeake.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By 1940, the Phelps brothers grew homesick. Back in South Norfolk, they bought an old amusement park by the Elizabeth River, named it “Fernwood Farms” and made it a dance hall and recording studio.
The dance hall was said to be the largest on the East Coast. On Thursdays and Saturdays, the brothers and their perfectly pitched “blood harmony” were the feature act.
“Willie stood out,” said T.T. Dyer, a sometimes-singer at the club. “He was the best looking of them. And he knew how to handle a crowd.”
Fernwood Farms hosted the likes of Patsy Cline, Jimmy Dean, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow and Bill Monroe.
Willie wrote hundreds of songs. One, “I’m Beginning to Forget You,” was later recorded by Elvis Presley.
A fateful raid in 1959 by the state alcohol board effectively ended the good times at Fernwood Farms.
Decades after his brothers died, Phelps performed with new incarnations of The Virginia Rounders. Three years ago, friends said his singing voice was as strong as ever.
When news that Phelps, 89, was on his death bed came to his old friend Woodie Nordan on Monday , Nordan brought a guitar to Phelps’ bedside. Nordan sang the song “I Want to Die With a Guitar in My Hand.”
At the conclusion, Nordan quietly laid the guitar on Phelps’ chest, and the request was realized.
Post Script: In 89 years, singer did what many only dream of
By JOHN WARREN, The Virginian-Pilot
© March 6, 2004
CHESAPEAKE — The way the story goes, Willie Phelps was almost Roy Rogers, name and all.
Republic Pictures had put out a call for a singing cowboy, and Phelps was on his way to a tryout. A young singer named Len Slye snuck in without an appointment and won the role. His name was changed to Roy Rogers.
In the mid-1930s, after achieving local notoriety on WTAR Radio, Phelps left for Hollywood with his brothers Norman and Earl – the other two-thirds of the country music trio Norman Phelps and the Virginia Rounders. The Phelps Brothers – Willie on guitar, Earl on fiddle and Norman on stand-up bass – sang in several movies and starred in several movie shorts.
They rubbed elbows with the likes of Rogers, Gene Autry and Tex Ritter. The brothers spent one long afternoon in a bar with Willie’s idol, Tom Mix.
“Willie and his brothers, they did everything in their lifetime the rest of us dream about,” said Ed Beard, Phelps’ son-in-law and a musician.
William Thomas Phelps Sr.
1914 -2004
A celebration of Willie’s life, open to the public, will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Eagle’s Club No. 795, 516 Post Ave., Chesapeake.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By 1940, the Phelps brothers grew homesick. Back in South Norfolk, they bought an old amusement park by the Elizabeth River, named it “Fernwood Farms” and made it a dance hall and recording studio.
The dance hall was said to be the largest on the East Coast. On Thursdays and Saturdays, the brothers and their perfectly pitched “blood harmony” were the feature act.
“Willie stood out,” said T.T. Dyer, a sometimes-singer at the club. “He was the best looking of them. And he knew how to handle a crowd.”
Fernwood Farms hosted the likes of Patsy Cline, Jimmy Dean, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow and Bill Monroe.
Willie wrote hundreds of songs. One, “I’m Beginning to Forget You,” was later recorded by Elvis Presley.
A fateful raid in 1959 by the state alcohol board effectively ended the good times at Fernwood Farms.
Decades after his brothers died, Phelps performed with new incarnations of The Virginia Rounders. Three years ago, friends said his singing voice was as strong as ever.
When news that Phelps, 89, was on his death bed came to his old friend Woodie Nordan on Monday , Nordan brought a guitar to Phelps’ bedside. Nordan sang the song “I Want to Die With a Guitar in My Hand.”
At the conclusion, Nordan quietly laid the guitar on Phelps’ chest, and the request was realized.