Roy Clark

Clark was born April 15, 1933, in Meherrin, Virginia,[2] one of five children[3] born to Hester Linwood Clark and Lillian Clark (Oliver).[4] His father was a tobacco farmer.[4] He spent his childhood in Meherrin and New York City, where his father moved the family to take jobs during the Great Depression.[5] When Clark was 11 years old, his family moved to a home on 1st Street SE in the Washington Highlands neighborhood of Washington, D.C.,[6] after his father found work at the Washington Navy Yard.[7]

Clark's father was a semi-professional musician who played banjo, fiddle, and guitar,[5] and his mother played piano.[4] The first musical instrument Clark ever played was a four-string cigar box with a ukulele neck attached to it,[4] which he picked up in elementary school.[8] His father taught Clark to play guitar[4] when Roy was 14 years old, and soon Clark was playing banjo, guitar, and mandolin.[7] "Guitar was my real love, though," Clark later said. "I never copied anyone, but I was certainly influenced by them; especially by George Barnes. I just loved his swing style and tone."[9] Clark also found inspiration in other local D.C. musicians. "One of the things that influenced me growing up around Washington, D.C., in the '50s was that it had an awful lot of good musicians. And I used to go in and just steal them blind. I stole all their licks. It wasn't until years later that I found out that a lot of them used to cringe when I'd come in and say, 'Oh, no! Here comes that kid again.'"[8] As for his banjo style, Clark said in 1985, "When I started playing, you didn't have many choices to follow, and Earl Scruggs was both of them."[8] Clark won the National Banjo Championship in 1947 and 1948,[9] and briefly toured with a band when he was 15.[9]

Clark was very shy, and turned to humor as a way of easing his timidity. Country-western music was widely derided by Clark's schoolmates, leaving him socially isolated. Clowning around, he felt, helped him to fit in again. Clark used humor as a musician as well, and it was not until the mid 1960s that he felt confident enough to perform in public without using humor in his act.[8]

The D.C. area had a number of country-western music venues at the time. Duet acts were in favor, and for his public performance debut Clark teamed up with Carl Lukat. Lukat was the lead guitarist, and Clark supported him on rhythm guitar.[8] In 1949, at the age of 16, Clark made his television debut on WTTG, the DuMont Television Network affiliate in Washington, D.C.[5] At 17, he made his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry[7] in recognition for winning his second national banjo title.[9] By this time, he had begun to play fiddle and twelve-string guitar.[10] He toured the country for the next 18 months playing backup guitar during the week for David "Stringbean" Akeman, Annie Lou and Danny, Lonzo and Oscar, and Hal and Velma Smith, working county fairs and small town theaters. On weekends, these acts usually teamed up with country music superstars like Red Foley or Ernest Tubb and played large venues in big cities. He earned $150 a week ($1,824 in 2022 dollars).[8] After the tour, Clark returned to performing at local country-music venues. He recorded singles for Coral Records and 4 Star Records.[8]

At the age of 23, Clark obtained his pilot's certificate and then bought a 1953 Piper Tri-Pacer (N1132C), which he flew for many years. This plane was raffled off on December 17, 2012, to benefit the charity Wings of Hope.[11] He owned other planes, including a Mitsubishi MU-2, Stearman PT-17[12] and Mitsubishi MU-300 Diamond 1A business jet.[13]

Clark endorsed Mosrite, Gretsch, and Heritage guitars; the latter produced a signature model.[24] In the 1980s, he served as a spokesman for Hunt's ketchup.[25]

Clark married Ruby Conley in 1954. They had a son, Roy Linwood Clark Jr. The couple divorced in 1957. Roy married Barbara Joyce Rupard on August 31, 1957. They remained wed until Roy's passing in 2018 [4] The couple had five children.[3] They made their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the Roy Clark Elementary School was named in his honor in 1978.[8][26]

Clark died on November 15, 2018, at 85 at his Tulsa home due to complications of pneumonia.[3][27]

By the early 1970s, Clark had been named "Entertainer of the Year" three times by the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association (CMA). The Academy also named him "Best Lead Guitar Player" and "Best Comedy Act", while the CMA named him an "International Friendship Ambassador" in 1976 after Clark toured the Soviet Union.[8]

On August 22, 1987, Clark was made a member of the Grand Ole Opry.[28][29] He played an annual benefit concert at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, the proceeds of which went to fund scholarships for aspiring musicians.[30]

Clark was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009.[3] On April 12, 2011, Clark was honored by the Oklahoma House of Representatives. He was honored by the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame as Oklahoma's Music Ambassador for Children and presented with a commendation from Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin.[31] In 2007, he was inducted into the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame.[32] He was inducted into the Fiddlers Hall of Fame.[23] Roy Clark was one of the founding inductees into the Virginia Musical Museum & Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Wayne Newton, Ella Fitzgerald, The Carter Family, The Statler Brothers, Bruce Hornsby, Pearl Bailey and Ralph Stanley were the other founding inductees.

• 1970 – CMA – Comedian of the Year
• 1972 – ACM – Entertainer of the Year
• 1973 – ACM – Entertainer of the Year
• 1973 – CMA – Entertainer of the Year
• 1975 – CMA – Instrumental Group of the Year (with Buck Trent)
• 1976 – CMA – Instrumental Group of the Year (with Buck Trent)
• 1977 – CMA – Instrumentalist of the Year
• 1978 – CMA – Instrumentalist of the Year
• 1980 – CMA – Instrumentalist of the Year
• 1982 – Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance for his recording of Alabama Jubilee

Notes

Citations

• Clark, Roy; Eliot, Marc (1994). My Life—In Spite of Myself!. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-86434-7.
• The Comprehensive Country Music Encyclopedia: From the Editors of 'Country Music' Magazine. New York: Times Books. October 18, 1994. ISBN 978-0-8129-2247-9.
• Moritz, Chester, ed. (1979). Current Biography Yearbook. New York: H. W. Wilson Co. OCLC 1565606.
• Ferguson, Jim (1979). The Guitar Player Book. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-3941-7169-2.
• Flint, Joseph H.; Nelson, Judy (1993). The Insider's Country Music Handbook. Salt Lake City: Gibbs-Smith. ISBN 978-0-8790-5563-9.
• Gregory, Andy, ed. (2002). International Who's Who in Popular Music 2002 (fourth ed.). London: Europa Publications. ISBN 978-1-8574-3161-2.
• Kingsbury, Paul (December 16, 2004). The Encyclopedia of Country Music. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1951-7608-7.
• Larkin, Colin (1995). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Volume 1: A Cappella—Clarke, Johnny. New York: Stockton Press. ISBN 978-0-8511-2662-3.
• Lornell, Kip (June 1, 2012). Exploring American Folk Music: Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions in the United States. Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-6170-3264-6.
• Simon, Jordan (February 28, 1995). Branson: The Official Travel and Souvenir Guide to America's Music Show Capital. New York: Fodor's Travel Publications. ISBN 978-0-6790-2817-8.
• Stambler, Irwin; Landon, Grelun (July 14, 2000). Country Music: The Encyclopedia. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-3122-6487-1.

• At the Grand Ole Opry Archived 2013-10-14 at the Wayback Machine
• Roy Clark Elementary School Archived 2018-02-13 at the Wayback Machine
• Voices of Oklahoma interview with Roy Clark. First person interview conducted on August 15, 2011, with Roy Clark.
• Roy Clark Interview at NAMM Oral History Collection

• Roy Clark at IMDb
• Roy Clark at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• Roy Clark at Find a Grave