This is the first of a 5-page series. These pages are not intended to be a biography of Texas Bill, but an attempt to retrace his many steps across America during his short but incredibly action-packed lifetime.

It was created at the request of and with the help of Dale Strength, Texas Bill’s eldest son, who is dedicated to preserving the legacy of his father.

Sources include:

• Ancestry.com
• Articles from Billboard magazine, as provided by Dale’s cousin
• Mr. Roland S. McDonald, Reference Archivist, Alabama Department of Archives and History
• Minneapolis Star and Tribune
• MyHeritage.com
• Newspapers.com
• PragueFrank’s Country Music Discographies  – Frank Frantik has done an awesome job collecting information on Country artists and their recording sessions, despite the fact that he lives in in Prague, Czech Republic.  All such recording information comes from this site.
• Ronnie Pugh’s article “Sing, Spin, Stump, Sell:  The Forgotten Figure Who Did it All,” written as an entry on TBS for the Country Music Foundation’s encyclopedia.  A version was read at the 14^th International Country Music Conference on June 6, 1997, in Meridian, Mississippi.
• Don Veasey, Curator of Photographs, Department of Archives and Manuscripts, Birmingham Public Library
• Taped interviews that Dale conducted with his mother at her home in Texas in the early 1980s.

Corrections and additions are always welcome.

Feel free to contact me.

Jeanne Andersen