George wasn’t too fond of having to sing for his daddy in the late hours of the night. Recalling his childhood days, George said his dad would come jolting in the house, wake him up, and demand that he sing to him. He would always obey his dad’s command, but it wasn’t because he wanted to; it was because he was afraid of him, and Mr. Jones could get plenty rough when he was drinking. If there was ever an instance when George hated to sing, this was the time. If there is a good side to Mr. Jones, it would have to be that he knew his children had talent and wanted them to put it to good use even if it wasn’t for anyone but himself. Mr. Jones enjoyed his kids’ singing because he loved music. He loved the old Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, and Hank Williams, Sr. tunes he’d listen to on the radio.
I always enjoyed the stories George would tell about his childhood and his family. Sometimes, he’d pick up his guitar and sing his mother’s favorite gospel song, “Nothing Between My Soul and My Savior,” and tears would run down his face. George had a wonderful family, and I had the pleasure of meeting every one of them (except Ethel, of course). Ruth was quite a character, and she talked all the time. She really wanted to look out for George, and she came and visited George more than any other sibling. She was jolly and a lot of fun to be around. She was born in March and very much believed in her “Aries” sign. She was a real estate agent, and George used to say she’d talk her way out of more deals than she’d ever close. Lois was a real sweet and humble lady. She didn’t want to get involved with George’s business at all but was always very concerned about her brother. Doris came to visit with George often but not as much as Ruth. Doris was quieter but wasn’t afraid to speak up when she felt it necessary to do so. She was also concerned about George and his happiness.
Joyce was the last sister I met, and it was later on in life that I got to know her. Peanutt and I were in Vidor, Texas singing at a church, and Ruth came to see us. She told us that Joyce was in a nursing home, and we wanted to go see her. The next day we went to visit her, and I took a quilt that I had made to give to her. It had Bible verses on it, and she couldn’t believe that I wanted her to have that little quilt. She was so thankful we came to see her and was so proud of that little quilt. She was a very sick little lady, but she felt pretty good that day. She knew who we were and asked us about her brother George. We told her that we seldom ever saw George anymore but from what we heard, he was doing really well. We had a very good visit with Joyce and had prayer with her before we left. I was really glad we had gone to see her because it wasn’t long afterward that we heard she had passed away.
Helen was the sister that George always talked about. He loved all his sisters and his brother, but she was the one he seemed to turn to when he needed advice. Helen was a real reasonable person. She was serious minded and was blessed with plenty of intelligence. Helen could be counted on to do the right thing in every situation, and I think she was a mother figure to George. Helen and George were close because she was the oldest sister, and he was the baby. George really thought a lot of Helen’s husband also, and he’d tell me stories of how Mr. Scroggins would buddy up to him and get him to help in the fields to kill out the grasshoppers. All these experiences made George very fond of Helen and her husband.
I was only around Herman a few times, but I recall this one visit in particular. We were in Vidor, Texas with George, and we went by to see Herman and his wife, Evalene. They were such sweet down to earth folks, and Herman was very much a family man. Living with him was his precious little autistic grandchild.
It was obvious that Herman loved his little brother George, and my heart was really touched as we started to leave. George noticed that Herman had a flat tire on his car. George reached in his pocket and took out some large bills and laid them in Herman’s hand. Herman thanked George over and over and told George that he didn’t need to give him the money, but George just smiled at him and walked away.
When all the siblings had passed away except George and Helen, George’s memories of them never faded. From time to time, George would share memories of his childhood days that would take him back to his roots in The Big Thicket. It was amazing how George could pour out stories of those days of his youth and paint a picture in your mind as clear as if you had been there with him. Time, fortune, and fame will never be able to erase those memories George held so dear to his heart of his family, his childhood, and the experiences of the life he lived in The Big Thicket.
Peanutt and I have traveled to The Big Thicket many times when we’d be in East Texas on tour, and we loved to go there.
We would recall and dwell on all the stories George had told us about his life growing up in that area. Even though the area has changed a lot since those days of George Jones, I still imagine it just as he described it so many times.
George talked a lot about his father and mother. He said his dad played the guitar as well as the harp, and his mother played the piano and organ. He said she played the organ for the church they attended. He also knew he was very special to his mother; she let him get away with murder, and she didn’t make him do any chores like the older children had to do. He was spoiled by his mother’s love, but he loved every minute of that spoiling.
When George got his first guitar, he would find somewhere he could be alone, so he could practice and learn how to play it. He’d do anything he could to find the time to pick and sing, which was his passion. That love for country music lived within him, just like the love for his family.
There was a little restaurant in Vidor, Texas, where George’s mother, Clara, loved to eat. It was called, “The White House.” George said he’d always have to take his mother there every time he went to visit her. He’d say, “If I go to Vidor, I’ll have to take mama to The White House.” Then he’d smile. It was abundantly clear that he liked that expectation from his mom.
CHAPTER TWO
The Streets of Beaumont
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When George would tell the stories about how he started singing for the public on the streets of Beaumont, Texas, I would sit for hours listening and visualizing George as a boy getting thrilled from playing for the people on the streets. He’d take his guitar and play for anyone who would listen. He never played for money and never expected any. He loved to play and sing, and that’s about the only reason he’d get up in the morning. School, books, and learning were far from his mind, and so was everything else except learning how to play his guitar and sing. It wasn’t unusual for him to skip school and use that time for practicing.
George’s simple methods of entertainment began to impact people, and they liked him a lot. He had a little tin cup he would place in front of him on the sidewalk, and people began throwing change in it. Although George didn’t expect much, he was thrilled that at the end of the day, he would have collected several dollars. That was a lot of money for a poor little boy who wasn’t used to having much. When he finished his performances, he’d have enough money to go to a movie, buy some ice cream, get something to eat, and still have enough left for a piece of bubble gum. Sometimes George would bring home more money than his daddy would earn from a long day of logging. George never got spoiled but always appreciated the folks showing him love by giving him a little money for his talents.
George played and sang the entire time he was growing up. He was approached one day by a couple singing as a duo and entertaining at the Beaumont Playground. George wasted no time and joined “The Eddie and Pearl Show.”
George’s dad and mom were having serious marital problems. They were not getting along, and they started drifting farther and farther apart as they were going their separate ways. George began staying away from home. He would live with different relatives, and sometimes he’d stay with Eddie and Pearl.
George Glenn didn’t like being at home with all the turmoil going on between his parents, so it was rough on him. George loved his dad and mom and was missing his home life, but things got worse for him because Mr. and Mrs. Jones moved back to Vidor, Texas. Geo
rge remained in Beaumont because he could continue to sing and make a little money to support himself.
He continued his gigs with Eddie and Pearl at the Beaumont Playground, but he was barely making enough money to support himself. He’d pick up other work when he could find it, but he was between a rock and a hard place (as he put it). As a teenager, he was too young to play the clubs and dive bars. George wanted to play the bars because he could make a lot more money, and it was way more exciting, so he would lie about his age and get in. He got away with this many times before getting caught because he was only a young teenager struggling to make ends meet.
Many, many times I’ve heard George say, “I didn’t sing for money and didn’t even expect it; I just wanted to pick and sing for anyone who would listen.”
He said over and over, “I wasn’t trying to be a star. I never even thought about that. I just loved doing what I was doing. Of course as I got older, I had to have money to survive. Becoming a star never crossed my mind; it just turned out that way.”
George Jones was thankful for his success as a singer, but he never expected it to lead him to what he became. He excelled far beyond the streets of Beaumont to become the King of Country Music.
CHAPTER THREE
Dorothy Bonvillian
Wife Number One
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George Jones’s life was about to drastically change. While working with Eddie and Pearl at the Beaumont Playground, George met a young and beautiful dark-haired, dark-eyed daughter of a banker. Her name was Dorothy Bonvillian. Immediately, the two were attracted to each other, and the “sparks” began to fly.
George was only eighteen years old when this happened. He was lonely and desperately in search of companionship, and a key that would unlock the door to his unhappiness. He wanted a family and home, and Dorothy’s parents provided this need because they were fond of George. He spent a lot of quality time with the Bonvillian family.
In 1950, Dorothy Bonvillian became the first Mrs. George Jones. George was now happy. Even though George and Dorothy lived with her parents, George felt he had finally found acceptance into a family and a permanent place to call home. George continued working for Eddie and Pearl, and his reputation around the Beaumont area as a great singer was making him very well known.
Dorothy became pregnant with their first child. George was thrown for a loop when his wife announced that she was expecting, and he began to wonder how on earth he could provide for a wife and a child? In spite of the obstacles that confronted him, he would put forth every effort to fulfill his responsibility of taking care of the young Jones family.
The Bonvillian’s were better off financially than most people George had been around, so he had to become accustomed to several attitudes that would bring about even more changes for him. Mr. Bonvillian did not believe George could ever make enough money with his music to provide a decent living for his daughter and grandchild. He felt that working only on the weekends picking and singing was too little income to rely upon. He secured a job for George painting houses. Mr. Bonvillian decided that a regular job with weekly pay was exactly what George needed to support his family.
George was not at all happy with his painting job. He was a singer, and that’s all he wanted to be. Music was all George had ever done, and that’s all that was on his mind. George would much rather strum a guitar than slap paint on a plank with a paintbrush. His heart was very heavy. I have often wondered what kept him from writing the lyrics to a song on one of those houses with his brush.
It wasn’t long before there were some serious disagreements between George and his in-laws. After a few demanding words spewed from the mouths of the Bonvillian’s, George decided to get a place of his own for his family, so he rented an apartment and moved out.
Dorothy wasn’t nearly as ready as she thought she was to take on the responsibility of a wife and mother of a child. She became very homesick and distraught. She didn’t like living away from her dad and mom, so the marriage only lasted a year because Dorothy took their child, Susan, and moved back home with her parents.
The Bonvillian’s were not a bit bashful about telling George what they expected of him. They made it very clear that his responsibilities would be to pay child support, alimony, plus all the doctor and hospital bills. George didn’t fight the Bonvillians. He was willing to meet every demand if he could, but this was a heavy burden for an immature young man to bear. This expectation became extremely rough on him, and he couldn’t always find enough work to keep up.
Several times when George got behind on his child support, the Bonvillian’s would have him thrown in jail. Finally, a friend advised George to join the Marines because the Marines would pay him enough money to satisfy his wife and her parents and give him enough money to live on.
George took the advice and joined the Marines.
CHAPTER FOUR
Marriage, Marines,
Music and Money
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George was stationed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California. He began involving himself with some bad habits. He started smoking and drinking, and was also known to pick up a woman now and then. His former family life was all but a distant memory.
The worst thing that happened while George was in the Marines was that his most cherished singer, Hank Williams, Sr. died on January 1, 1953, and it devastated him. George absolutely loved Hank Williams and could not understand why he had to die at such a young age. Country Music suffered a great loss when Hank Williams died, but little did it know that there was another voice lurking for the opportunity to become another legend in its field. That voice belonged to George Jones and in due time, it would happen.
George served three years in the Marines. Although it wasn’t what he really wanted out of life, he felt he was better off than trapped on a scaffold painting houses. He soon became preoccupied with his new way of life and lived it to the fullest. George never served active duty for which he was thankful and exited the Marines at last at the age of twenty-two.
It wasn’t long after Hank Williams’ death that George Jones came alive as a country singer. Maybe Country Music had realized its loss with the death of Hank Williams and wanted to replace Hank with someone as near to Hank’s caliber as it could. That person could only be George Jones. As a young boy, George dreamed about someday getting to sing on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. Of course at that time it was like fantasizing a fairy tale coming true. Everybody loved George’s picking and singing, but those around him never thought he’d be any more than a honkytonk singer. It was hard for the people who knew him to visualize this poor shy country boy ever making it to the limelight.
Folks had experienced the hard and drab times the Great Depression brought them. They were ready for a more lively and pleasurable life. Money was not so scarce as it had been a few years back, so now they had a little extra cash to spend on something they wanted such as the music they cherished. A market had opened up in the music industry, and the opportunity was wide open for George Jones. George was ready and willing. It was the love of his life, plus he needed the extra money it would provide for him. George was full of desire, determination, and had the talent. All he needed was an open door, and he could bust the music industry wide open.
The music business had just begun to blaze like a raging fire sweeping across the nation. Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, and others had provided their style of music, but people were ready for something a little more lively and upbeat. What could be more exciting than to turn the radio on and hear Elvis Presley singing, “You Ain’t Nothing But A Hound Dog” or “Jailhouse Rock?” Jerry Lee Lewis woke up everybody with his, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On.” One artist after another was releasing hit records. People loved it! George Jones came on the scene with “White Lightnin’” and “Why Baby Why.”
A lot of music was being created in Memphis, Tennessee at Sun Records, but it was happening all over the nation and rapidly spreading all over the
world. The time was right for George Jones to make his break. He was out of his marriage, out of the Marines, and ready to go big time into music and money. He just needed that special someone to believe in him. Little did George know that he was about to meet the man who would introduce him to the world. This man would believe in him whole-heartedly and would stick with him through thick and thin. George was about to meet that special someone who would lead him into becoming a country music legend. His name was Pappy Daily from Houston, Texas. He was a producer and owner of a record label and publishing company and was looking for someone to produce. He found what he wanted in George Jones.
CHAPTER FIVE
Pappy Daily (Founder of George Jones)
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The Legend of George Jones: His Life and Death Page 2
