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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Tennessee Ernie Ford
ERNEST JENNINGS "TENNESSEE ERNIE" FORD
Awarded by
President Ronald Reagan
March 26, 1984
Through his musical talents, warm personality, and quick "down home" wit Tennessee Ernie Ford won the hearts of the American people. Ford's music, which revealed his character and soul to all who listened, inspired as well as entertained his audiences. His respect for traditional values, his strong faith in God, and his unlimited capacity for human kindness have greatly endeared him to his fellow countrymen.
Biography
Birth Name: Ernest Jennings Ford
Born: 2/13/1919
Birthplace: Bristol, Tennessee
Deceased: 10/17/1991
Year in Country Music Hall of Fame: 1990
Born on February 13, 1919 in Bristol, Tennessee, Ernest Jennings Ford worked as a radio announcer before studying voice at Cincinnati's Conservatory of Music in 1939.
After service in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Ford was both a serious announcer (as Ernest Jennings Ford) and a drawling hillbilly disc jockey (as Tennessee Ernie) on KFXM in San Bernardino, California and later on KXLA in Pasadena. His singing along with records on the air in his Tennessee Ernie persona led to singing on Cliffie Stone's numerous radio and TV shows in the Los Angeles area.
Through Stone, Ford was signed to Capitol Records in 1949 and on his first day with the label recorded his first Top 10 hit, "Tennessee Border." "Mule Train" spent a month atop the charts at the end of the year and by early 1951 Ford's long string of hits included "The Shot Gun Boogie" at #1 for fourteen weeks.
Ford's hosting a half hour daytime variety show on ABC-TV from January 1955 exposed his recordings like "Ballad Of Davy Crockett" and songs he would sing on the show, but had not recorded, like "Sixteen Tons," a 1946 Merle Travis composition. Viewer response to "Sixteen Tons" was so positive that Capitol let Ford record it in September 1955, but released it as the "B" side of "You Don't Have To Be A Baby To Cry." "Sixteen Tons" became a #1 country and pop hit, selling 400,000 copies during its first week and over two million by Christmas of that year.
Ford began a prime time television show, The Ford Show, on NBC-TV in 1956 which popularized Ford's expression, "Bless your little pea-pickin' hearts." Ford's closing each show with a hymn led Capitol to release a 1957 album, Hymns, which remained on the Billboard pop charts for nearly six years and sold over a million copies.
Ford continued hosting regular TV shows until 1965. In 1974 he toured Russia with a cast from Opryland U.S.A. at the request of the State Department. Ford frequently appeared on TV, particularly on Hee Haw and after its 1983 debut, on The Nashville Network.
Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1990, Ford fell ill after attending a state dinner at the White House and died on October 17, 1991 from liver disease, thirty-six years to the day after the release of "Sixteen Tons " .
Sixteen Tons
By Merle Travis
Some people say a man is made out of mud
A poor man's made out of muscle and blood
Muscle and blood, skin and bones...
A mind that's weak and a back that's strong
_________________
Chorus
You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
__________________
I was born one mornin' and the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal and
the straw boss said, "well bless my soul!"
.....you loaded...
(Chorus)
__________________
I was born one mornin' it was drizzlin' rain
fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in a cane-brake by an old mama lion
can't no high-toned woman make me walk no line
(Chorus)
__________________
If you see me comin', better step aside
A lot of men didn't, a lot of men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't get you, then the left one will
(Chorus)
__________________
You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
"Sixteen Tons" / Copyright / Elvis Presley Music ~ All Rights Reserved
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Medal History
