Smiley Burnette

"Some folks worry about the cost of
life without knowing the value of it. Way I figure it, happiness
is like a butterfly. You can chase it, but if you just settle down
it'll light on you."

Birth Name:
Lester Alvin Burnette
Induction Year:
1971
Date of Birth:
3/18/1911
Place of Birth: Summum,
IL
Date of Death:
2/17/1967
Place of Death: Knoxville,
TN

Former Occupations:

canning factory employee, taxi driver,
hotdog vendor on the University of Illinois campus during football
season, truck driver, motorcycle delivery
boy

Career Milestones:

1920--performing debut at age 9 at a
Y.M.C.A. banquet in Carthage, IL; paid
$3.00

1928--announcer and entertainer at WDZ
(then in Tuscola, IL)

1933--hired for Christmas Eve WLS
National Barn Dance in Chicago by Gene
Autry

1934--went to Hollywood with Gene Autry
to try luck at film career; made "The Phantom
Empire"

1934--first Hollywood film role in "In
Old Santa Fe" with Ken Jaynard for
Mascot

1935--appeared in "Tumbling Tumbleweeds"
with Gene Autry

1955-1963--toured the U.S. doing comedy
routines and singing his own songs, accompanying himself on guitar
or accordion

early 1960s--starred on nationally
syndicated radio show produced by RadiOzark in Springfield,
MO

1963-1966--appeared in CBS-TV's
"Petticoat
Junction"

Catalog Highlights

Riding Down the
Canyon

Co-writers: Gene
Autry

Artists: Gene Autry, Willie Nelson &
Leon Russell, Riders in the Sky, Johnnie Lee
Wills

It's My Lazy
Day

Artists: Merle Haggard & Willie
Nelson, Bob Wills & the Texas
Playboys

Hominy
Grits

Artists: Red
Foley

Mama Don't 'low No Music Playin' in
Here

Catfish, Take a Look at that
Worm

Jackass
Mail

My Home
Town

Comments:

Seldom took him more than 30 minutes to
write a song; occasionally, he did it in 10 minutes while his family
waited breakfast, and then would sell it to the studio by reading or
singing the lyrics over the telephone; wrote the type of songs he sang
best--children's, western novelty and hillbilly (country)
songs

Credited with coming up with the name
"Trigger" for Roy Rogers' horse

Became known as "Frog" (Ole Frog Millhouse),
Gene Autry's sidekick in the westerns they made for Republic
Pictures