David "Stringbean" Akeman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| David "Stringbean" Akeman | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | David Akeman |
| Also known as | Stringbean |
| Born | June 17, 1915 |
| Origin | Annville, Kentucky, USA |
| Died | November 10, 1973 (aged 58) |
| Genre(s) | Country |
| Occupation(s) | Country artist |
| Instrument(s) | banjo |
| Years active | 1930s – 1970s |
| Notable instrument(s) | |
| banjo | |
David Akeman (June 17, 1915 – November 10, 1973) was an American country music banjo player and comedy musician best known for his role on the hit television show, Hee Haw.
Contents |
[edit] Early Life and Career
Born in Annville, Jackson County, Kentucky, he came from a musical family and was taught to play banjo by his father. He acquired his first real banjo when he was 12 years old by trading it for a pair of prize bantam chickens. He began playing local dances and developing a reputation on the instrument, but could not earn a living as a musician. Instead, Akeman worked for the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, building roads and planting trees.
Later he entered a talent contest that was being judged by singer-guitarist-musical saw player Asa Martin, and won. Afterward, he was invited to join Martin's band. During one performance, Martin forgot Akeman's name and introduced him to the crowd as "String Beans." With his tall, thin build, the nickname stuck and he eventually was known by that single moniker.
At first, Akeman only played banjo in the group, but when another performer failed to turn up for a show, he was pressed into service as a singer and comic, and the act caught on. From that day forward, Akeman divided his time between comedy and music, along with some success as a semipro baseball player. He also broadcast on WLAP out of Lexington, KY, and played with various groups during the late '30s.
During this time, Akeman also played semi-professional baseball. It was as a ballplayer, that he first came to the attention of bluegrass pioneer, Bill Monroe, who fielded a private semipro team. Monroe eventually learned of Akeman's other talents, from 1943 until 1945, Akeman played as banjo-player for Monroe's band, playing on such recordings as "Goodbye Old Pal." Akeman also spent some of his time during this period teamed with Willie Egbert Westbrook as "String Beans and Cousin Wilbur," a comedy duo, who often worked on the same bills with Monroe's outfit. Akeman left Monroe in 1945 and was replaced by Earl Scruggs, a banjo player with a radically different technique.
[edit] Later Life and Career
In 1945, Akeman married Estelle Stanfill. That same year, he teamed up with Lew Childre to form a comedy duet, and the two were successful enough to be invited to perform on the Grand Ole Opry. During 1946, Akeman also began working with Grandpa Jones (Louis Marshall Jones), a fellow old-time banjo player and comedian. Jones and Akeman continued to work together on the Grand Ole Opry and later on the Hee Haw television series. They also became neighbors near Ridgetop, Tennessee. Akeman also became a protégé of Uncle Dave Macon, one of the biggest stars of the Grand Ole Opry. Macon, who died in 1952, was, like Stringbean and Grandpa Jones, a banjo-player/comic and one of the Opry's best loved performers. Toward the end of his life, Macon gave Akeman one of his own banjos.
Akeman, known by this time only as Stringbean, was one of the Opry's top stars throughout the 1950s. During this period, Akeman adopted a stage costume that comically accentuated his height, consisting of a shirt with an exceptionally long waist and tail, tucked into a pair of short child-sized blue jeans (from Little Jimmy Dickens) belted around his knees. The costume made him look like a very tall man with very short legs and helped contribute to the illusion of Akeman towering over his fellow performers. This kind of costume had many antecedents, including Slim Miller, a onetime stage comedian who was said to be Akeman's direct inspiration. The costume became synonymous with the Stringbean persona known to his audience.
Stringbean did not begin recording as a solo artist until the early 1960s, when he signed to the Starday label. By that time, Earl Scruggs, Akeman's replacement in the Bill Monroe band, had emerged as the premier figure in banjo playing, especially among younger listeners, and Scruggs-style playing became the predominant style for county and bluegrass banjo players. Akeman and Jones remained as two of the most celebrated performers of "old-time" banjo playing, also called "clawhammer" or "frailing". Akeman's musicianship is still much admired by aficionados of the old-time style. Akeman is listed along with Uncle Dave Macon, Grandpa Jones, and Ralph Stanley, as among the great old-time style banjo players.
Akeman still found an audience for his older style of playing and his mixture of cornball comedy and song. He had country-chart hits with "Chewing Gum" and "I Wonder Where Wanda Went." He recorded seven albums between 1961 and 1972. The first of those albums, "Old Time Pickin' & Grinnin' with Stringbean" (1961), was represenative of his milieu, containing folk songs (especially humorous animal songs), tall stories, and jokes.
Akeman remained a star of the Grand Ole Opry for the rest of his life. In 1969, Akeman, along with Jones, became founding members of the cast of the television show "Hee Haw." One of his regular routines was to read a "letter from Home" to his friends (similar in style to American comedian "Charley Weaver"). When asked about the latest letter, "Stringbean" would reach for it, stating that he carried it right next to "his Heart" (his upper overalls pocket). Not finding it there, he would proceed to quickly check all his other pockets, saying "Heart" on each check until he found the letter, usually in his hip pocket.
[edit] Murder
A modest and unassuming person, Akeman enjoyed the simple life of hunting and fishing. Accustomed to hard times during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Akeman and his wife, Estelle, lived frugally in a tiny cabin near Ridgetop, Tennessee -- their only indulgence a Cadillac automobile. Depression-era bank failures also inspired Akeman, like many others of his generation, to not trust banks with their money. It was general gossip around Nashville that Akeman usually kept significant amounts of cash on hand, despite not being terribly wealthy by entertainment industry standards.
On a Saturday night in November 1973, the Akemans returned home after performing a show at the Grand Ol' Opry, and were shot dead upon their arrival. Thieves had lain in wait for hours. The Akemans' bodies were discovered the following morning by neighbor and fellow performer, Grandpa Jones (Louis Marshall Jones).
A police investigation into the double homicide resulted in the conviction of cousins John A. Brown and Marvin Douglas Brown, both of whom were 23 years old at the time of the murders. At trial, it was revealed that the two had ransacked the cabin and then killed "Stringbean." Estelle shrieked when she saw "Stringbean" hit with the bullets. A few moments later, she was gunned down as well. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals described the scene, "Upon their return, Mr. Akeman spotted the intruders in his home and evidently offered some resistance. One of the Brown cousins fatally shot Mr. Akeman, then pursued, shot and killed Mrs. Akeman. At their trial, each defendant blamed the other for the homicides." Brown v. State, (unpublished decision at 1991 WL 242928).
The thieves left with nothing more than a chain saw and some guns. In 1996, twenty-three years after their murders, $20,000 in cash was discovered behind a brick in the chimney of the Akemans' home. The paper money had rotted to such an extent that it was not usable. (To place this amount in context, the United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicates that the purchasing power of $20,000 in 1973 would be equivalent to the purchasing power of some $91,000 in 2006.) The A&E cable television network profiled the Stringbean murder case on a 2003 episode of its popular City Confidential series.
Marvin Douglas Brown fought his convictions in the Tennessee appellate courts. On September 28, 1982, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial judge's order denying a new trial. State v. Brown, 644 S.W.2d 418 (Tenn.Crim.App. 1992). On November 21, 1991, the same court denied his motion for post conviction relief. State v. Brown, unpublished decision available at 1991 WL 24298. Marvin Brown ultimately granted an exclusive interview to Larry Brinton of the Nashville Banner. In the interview, he admitted his participation in the burglary and murders, but contended that John Brown fired the fatal shots.
Marvin Brown died of natural causes on January 8, 2003, at the Brushy Mountain Prison, in Petros, Tennessee. He is buried in the prison cemetery. John A. Brown remains incarcerated in a Tennessee Special Needs Facility, and he is scheduled for a parole hearing in July of 2008.
David and Estelle Akeman are buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.
[edit] References
- Jones, Louis M. "Grandpa", with Charles Wolfe. (1984). "Chapter Thirteen: String". In Everybody's Grandpa: Fifty Years Behind the Mike. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press. pp. 197-207.
- Wolfe, Stacey. (1998). "Stringbean". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 515.
