|
 Slim Willet - De Leon, TX Posted by:  QuesterMark
N 32° 12.119 W 098° 29.959
14S E 547188 N 3562933
As it says on his headstone, "Slim Willet" was the Professional Name of Winston Lee Moore, buried in Victor Cemetery, near De Leon, TX.
Waymark Code: WM8VCB
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 05/16/2010
Views: 6
His headstone reads:
Winston Lee
Moore
Dec. 1, 1919 July 1, 1966
---
Professionally Known as
Slim Willet
Composer of
Don't Let the Stars
Get in Your Eyes
---
There is Just One
Way to Live
Like You Were Going to
Live Forever
His military footstone reads:
Winston Lee Moore
Texas
Pvt US Army
World War II
Dec. 1, 1919 July 1, 1966
More about the song: Wikipedia
More about Victor, Texas: Handbook of Texas History
Description:
Slim Willet is best remembered as the composer of the 1953 bestseller "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes". The song has been recorded by more than 90 artists, reaching the top 10 at least four times.
Willet also recorded a number of oilfield songs, starting with "I'm a Tool Pusher from Snyder" in 1950 and including an album "Texas Oil Patch Songs" in 1959.
Winston Lee Moore (Slim's real name) was born in Victor, Erath County, Texas in 1919. Moore served with the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937. He got married in 1938, and the couple moved to the west coast where he found work in an aircraft plant. He served in the Army during the waning months of WWII. Following the War, he used the GI Bill and enrolled in Hardin-Simmons University, from which he graduated in 1949. While at school, he came up with his professional name: Slim from the fact that he was far from that, and Willet from characters in his favorite comic, "Out Our Way".
He had been student manager of the University radio station, KHSU, and went to work full time at Abilene radio station KRBC. He also started writing songs. With the success of "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes", Willet started his own record label. He also handled emcee duties for the Big State Jamboree on Saturday evenings and hosted a weekly variety show on KRBC-TV. He continued to be a radio DJ on KRBC until 1957 when he moved to KNIT.
After 1960, Willet seems to have scaled back work with his own music. He died of a heart attack in Abilene in 1966.
Much of this information from the article, "Slim Willet's Oil Patch Songs" by Joe W. Specht in "Southwestern Historical Quarterly", January 2010, Texas State Historical Association
Date of birth: 12/01/1919
Date of death: 07/01/1966
Area of notoriety: Entertainment
Marker Type: Headstone
Setting: Outdoor
Visiting Hours/Restrictions: No posted restrictions, but visiting in daylight recommended.
Fee required?: No
Web site: [Web Link]
|
Visit Instructions:
To post a visit log for waymarks in this category, you must have personally visited the waymark location. When logging your visit, please provide a note describing your visit experience, along with any additional information about the waymark or the surrounding area that you think others may find interesting.
We especially encourage you to include any pictures that you took during your visit to the waymark. However, only respectful photographs are allowed. Logs which include photographs representing any form of disrespectful behavior (including those showing personal items placed on or near the grave location) will be subject to deletion.
|