Thomas Burros Sr.
December 6, 2017
DON’T LOSE YOUR PROGRESS!
December 6, 2017
Yes, Virginia, there was a Casey Jones. Just like Francis Church’s answer to your query in 1887 “Is there a Santa Clause” made believers of folks around the world so did the story of John Luther “Casey” Jones, whose nickname came from his home town of “Cayce” Kentucky.
“Come all you rounders if you want to hear, the story of a brave engineer
Casey Jones was the rounder’s name, on the “six-eight wheeler boys he won his fame.”
Everybody knew that song, written by his friend Wallace Saunders in 1902, two years after the wreck. It has been translated into every language in the world and recorded hundreds of times, including a 1924 Victor version by Vernon Dalhart which sold in the millions.
I knew it from my cradle days, but in French. “Casey Jones avec ce pantalon Jaune”. (I guess Jaune, French for yellow, rhymed with Jones which determined the color of his pants). I confess I made worst rhymes during my song writing days.
Hal Benson, Johnny Schouest and I had almost two hours of interviews with country music recording artists and we were almost out the door when Johnny asked Hal “who is that very elderly lady and that tall black man being interviewed?” Hal checked and came running back. “Unpack the recorder, that lady is the real Mrs. Casey Jones and Casey’s black fireman, Sim Webb, who survived the wreck. We got to get that.” We did. She was in her eighties and told me her maiden name was Mary Brady and had raised three children with Casey. Hal edged us out because the show was about to start at the stadium and I was going to be on it. Ahem!
She seemed weak but was eager to tell the story she had told thousands of time and in many countries. (She died in 1958 just 5 years after the interview.) As she walked away, her companion approached me, said his name was Sim Webb, and that he had acted as her body guard, chauffeur and servant ever since her husband died and that “Mrs. Jones expects a fee for interviews because that’s how she makes a living.” I pointed him towards Hal who conferred with him in a corner of the hotel. Hal never told me what the cost was, just that it was “taken care of”.
I still find it ironic, even today, that of the hundreds of well-known celebrities who got in our line to be interviewed, the only one we had to pay was the one person in the room that hardly anybody knew.
Now we jumped in Johnny’s Buick and met Hank Thompson’s manager Jim Halsey who had set up a table for the tape recorder and steel guitarist Pee Wee Whitewing led me to the rehearsal area where the musicians were handed out the charts. (Very few country musician, to my knowledge in Nashville, Meridian or elsewhere can read music. They read what is known in the trade as chord charts, which is Greek to me, but they certainly knew what they were doing and being the biggest western swing band in the world (biggest that Bob Wills or Spade Cooley) they certainly had to know.
I never got to play music with Pee Wee except that one time, but he played with all the biggies, but Johnny Comeaux who also played with Thompson, Wills and Cooley played steel guitar with Vin Bruce and the Acadians for several years and on most of VIN’s records.
I didn’t get to see Hank Thompson at the show because the guest stars (me being one) would perform first, take an intermission and then the star would perform, but later we chatted awhile at the reception.
Hal winked at me from below to let me know he was ready to record and the music began. What a thrill! In my musical career I had the honor and pleasure of singing with Ernest Tub’s Texas Troubadours, Asleep at the Wheel, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys but the Brazos Valley Boys were the greatest and that was certainly O.K. for an old Cajun Boy.
Next Week: Mrs. Rodgers’ Reception.
Bye Now!
‘I still find it ironic, even today, that of the hundreds of wellknown celebrities who got in our line to be interviewed, the only one we had to pay was the one person in the room that hardly anybody knew.’
BY LEROY MARTIN Houma Times Historical Columnist
Leroy Martin continues telling stories of his many adventures with Hal Benson in this week’s piece. He talks about interviewing and playing music with several big-time stars.
