"This is your ol' cotton pickin', snuff dippin', tobacco chewin', coffee pot dodgin', dumplin' eatin', frog giggin' hillbilly from Hill Country!" --Willie's opening line when he became a DJ on KCNC in Fort Worth (1954). Austin-son of ELISHA Smothers b Jan 14 1800 Va This is the line of Karen, Jan, Virginia, Bernie and Russell-if I left anyone out, let me know. Descendants of Austin L. Smothers 1 Austin L. Smothers 1827-1915 .. +Mary Elizabeth Henry 1832- 1892 .... 2 William Marion Smothers 1861 - ....... +Mary Elizabeth Rose 1861 - ......... 3 Nancy Elizabeth Smothers 1882 - 1979 Tarrant Co Tx ............ +William Alfred Nelson 1884 - 1940 Hill Co Tx NOTE: "Following Willie & Bobbie's mother's desertion and the death of their father Ira, Willie and his sister Bobbie were raised by their grandparents Nancy and Wm Nelson. Willie worked cotton fields until he was ten, when he began playing guitar & Bobbie was encouraged to play the piano in local German and Czech polka bands." .............. 4 Ira Nelson b 1905 Pindall Searcy Co Ark - ? NOTE:Ira was a traveling mechanic ................ +Myrle Greenhaw b 1911 Pindall Searcy co Ark NOTE:Md Sep 6 1929 Newton Co Ark. She dau/o Wm Alex Greenhaw and Bertha Reynolds. She had 4 other siblings. Wonder where she went & WHY? .................5 Willie Hugh Nelson b Apr 30 1933 Abbot Tx - ***** +1 Martha Cherokee Indian md 1953 Waco Tx NOTE:"In 1953 Nelson began a traumatic marriage in Waco, Texas. "Martha was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian," says Nelson, "and every night was like Custer's last stand." When they moved to Fort Worth, Texas, Nelson was criticized for playing beer-joints and inappropriately evangelizing - he fortunately gave up the latter. A Salvation Army drummer, Paul English, has been his drummer ever since, and is referred to in "Me And Paul" and "Devil In A Sleepin' Bag." 6 Lana Nelson b 1953 6 Susie Nelson b 1956 +2 Shirley Collie md 1965 6 Paula Nelson b 1969 6 Amy Nelson b 1973 NOTE:"He had his first country hits, "Willingly" and "Touch Me" both were duets with Shirley Collie, his second wife, and both made it into the Top 10 in 1962. In 1965 Nelson married Shirley Collie and took up pig-farming in Ridgetop, Tennessee." +3 Ann Marie D'Angelo md 1991 6 Lukas Nelson b 1989 6 Jacob Nelson b 1990 NOTE:"In 1991, Nelson married Annie D'Angelo and they now have a young family." .................. 5 Bobbie Lee Nelson b 1931 Hill Co Tx + Bud Fletcher NOTE:"Sister Bobbie married the fiddle player Bud Fletcher, and they both played in his band. When Fletcher booked western swing star Bob Wills, the 13-year-old Willie Nelson joined him for a duet." .............. 4 Rosa Lusetta Nelson 1903 - 1998 ................. +William Ernest Nichols 1898 - .................. 5 William Marion Nichols 1922 - .................. 5 Moody Nelso Nichols 1926 - ........ 3 Henry A. Smothers 1887 - 1931 ............ +Julia H. 1888 - 1931 ............. 4 Haskell S. Smothers 1911 - 1925 ...... 2 Josephene Smothers 1863 - ...... 2 Sarah E. Smothers 1865 - ...... 2 Nancy J. Smothers 1867 - ...... 2 John T. Smothers 1872 - OTHER NOTES ON WILLIE HUGH NELSON Education: After he graduated high school, he spent nine months in the Air Force, but was discharged due to back problems. Soon he enrolled part-time in a farming program at Baylor University. Best known for: being one of the greatest songwriters of all time, an accomplished guitar player, and having a unique style of performing which has ranked him among the finest country singers. Career: By the age of seven he was writing cheating-heart-style songs. "Maybe I got 'em from soap operas on the radio," he said, "but I've always seemed to see the sad side of things. Willie's career began at the age of 10 when he joined John Raycjeck's Bohemian Polka Band. He worked several jobs when he got a little older as a disc jockey, selling encyclopedias, and selling other door-to-door items. After graduation he enlisted in the US Air Force, but was invalided out with a bad back, which has continued to plague his career to the present day. He later attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Before dropping out, he sold Bibles and encyclopedias door-to-door, worked as a disc jockey and musician, and taught Sunday school. While teaching Sunday school in Fort Worth, Nelson was also playing honky-tonk clubs on Saturday nights. When his parishioners demanded he choose between the church and music, he chose the latter. With the $50 he earned from his first published song, "Family Bible," Nelson went to Nashville where songwriter Hank Cochran got him a publishing contract. Eventually he had a recording contract of his own, but his weathered tenor and his taste for sparse backup were considered uncommercial. 1965 after his marriage to Collie Ray Price refused to record any more of Nelson's songs after an accident when Nelson shot his fighting rooster. However, they eventually joined forces for an album. Chet Atkins produced some fine albums for Nelson on RCA Records, including a tribute to his home state, Texas In My Soul. Nelson was only allowed to record with his own musicians on the live Country Music Concert album, which included an emotional "Yesterday" and a jazzy "I Never Cared For You". He recorded around 200 tracks for the label, including well-known songs of the day such as "Both Sides Now", "Help Me Make It Through The Night" and, strangely, the UK comedy team Morecambe And Wise's theme song, "Bring Me Sunshine". Yesterday's Wine remains his finest RCA album, although it begins somewhat embarrassingly, with Nelson talking to God. Nelson wrote seven of the songs in one night, under the influence of alcohol and drugs; "What Can You Do To Me Now?", in particular, acutely indicated his anguish and instability. When his Nashville home burned down around 1970, Nelson moved back to Texas 1972, continuing to record, write, and perform. In 1972 he held his first annual Fourth of July picnic with young and old rock and country musicians in Dripping Springs, Texas & turned it into a festival of contemporary country music -- an event that would soon become a local institution, with the Fourth of July named Willie Nelson Day by the Texas Senate in 1975. He planned the Texas Fourth of July Picnics and worked on Farm Aid Concerts benefits, and he and Kenny Rogers represented country music on the number 1 USA For Africa single, "We Are The World". In 1975 Nelson signed with Columbia and wanted to record a lengthy, old ballad, "Red Headed Stranger" which contained the cross-over hit single "Blue Eyes Cryin' In The Rain." His wife Shirley suggested that he split the song into sections and fit other songs around it. This led to an album about an old-time preacher and his love for an unfaithful woman. The album consisted of Willie's voice and guitar and Bobbie's piano. Columbia thought it was too low-key, too religious and needed strings. They were eventually persuaded to release it as it was and Red Headed Stranger (1975) has since become a country classic. Nelson's gentle performance of the country standard "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain" was a number 1 country hit and also made number 21 on the US pop charts in 1975. [If you've never seen this Film...you should...its suppose to be a story of his own love gone wrong and he plays a Preacher!] Later, as "the unofficial Mayor of Austin," he brought together the various groups of Country Music fans and helped start a new interest in the genre by attracting long-haired rock and roll fans. He let his hair grow long, wore a T-shirt and blue jeans, and wrapped a bandana around his neck. He also began to take an interest in karma and reincarnation. Various artists have appeared on his many albums, including Johnny Bush, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Julio Iglesias, George Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Brenda Lee, Roger Miller, Dolly Parton, Webb Pierce, Ray Price, Leon Russell, Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, Faron Young, and Neil Young. Nelson's record label, Lone Star, which he started in 1978 with Steven Fromholz and the Geezinslaw Brothers, was not a commercial success, but he later developed his own recording studio and golf course at Pedernales, Texas; he produced Timi Yuro - Today there in 1982. http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/nelson_willie/bio.jhtml With all this activity, it is hardly surprising that his songwriting has suffered and he rarely records new compositions. He wrote "On The Road Again" for the country music film in which he starred, Honeysuckle Rose, and he also wrote a suite of songs about the old west and reincarnation, Tougher Than Leather, when he was in hospital with a collapsed lung. Nelson's touring band, Family, is a very tight unit featuring musicians who have been with him for many years. Audiences love his image as an old salt, looking rough and playing a battered guitar, and his headbands have become souvenirs in the same way as Elvis' scarves. His greatest testimony comes from President Jimmy Carter, who joined him onstage and said, "I, my wife, my daughter, my sons and my mother all think he's the greatest". Unfortunately, the USA's Internal Revenue Service took a different view, and in an effort to obtain $16 million in back-taxes, they had Nelson make an acoustic album, which was sold by mail order. His collaboration with artists such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon on Across The Borderline brought him back into the commercial mainstream for the first time in several years. Albums have flowed fast and furiously as Nelson brings himself back into the black financially, with Just One Love and Teatro, the latter recorded with Daniel Lanois, the high points of his prolific 90s period. Milk Cow Blues, Nelson's first release of the new millennium, was a straightforward blues album. Nelson is a true outlaw and probably the greatest legend and performer in country music since Hank Williams. http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Shores/5498/wnindex.html Willie Nelson has proved to be a representative of American persistance under adversity and of what we call Americana. Throughout his life, Willie Nelson has not only entertained, but has provided a part of himself as our country's heritage. Willie continues to pursue his passion for performing with months of touring, year after year. Yet he also manages to always fit in time for a good round of golf, as well as card games with his friends or an afternoon playing dominoes in the little Texas town of Luckenbach. [Looking Back Texas....been there...also saw him in person in the '70s] As an overall answer to the question "Who is Willie Nelson?", Leon Russell put it best: With hair as long as the generosity and talent as big as the heart, there is also a compassion that appears to be endless. Willie is a giant among men who lives inside a quiet down to earth understanding. -Leon Russell http://www.allsands.com/Music/Bio/willienelsonbi_roc_gn.htm _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963