Johnny Horton - Early Life

Early Life

Horton was born in Los Angeles, California, to John and Claudia Horton, the youngest of five siblings, and raised in Rusk, Texas. His family often traveled to California, frequently as migrant fruit pickers. After graduation from Gallatin High School in 1944, he attended the Methodist-affiliated Lon Morris Junior College in Jacksonville, Texas, with a basketball scholarship. He later attended Seattle University and briefly attended Baylor University, although he did not graduate from any of these institutions.

Horton soon went back to California where he found work in the mail room of Hollywood's Selznick Studio. It was here that he met his future wife, secretary Donna Cook.

Horton and his older brother Frank briefly pursued the study of geology at Seattle during 1948 but both ended after a few weeks. He went to Florida, then back to California before leaving for Alaska to look for gold. It was during this period that he began writing songs. He joined Frank in Seattle, went south to Los Angeles, then after Frank married, left for Texas. After much prompting from his sister Marie, he entered a talent contest at the Reo Palm Isle club in Longview, Texas, sponsored by radio station KGRI in Henderson and hosted by station radio announcer and future country music star Jim Reeves. Horton won first prize—an ashtray on a pedestal. Encouraged by the contest, he went back to California, bought some Western-style clothes and entered talent contests.

Horton came to the attention of entrepreneur Fabor Robison, whose first job as manager was to give him a job with Cliffie Stone's Hometown Jamboree on KXLA-TV in Pasadena. During his early guest performances he worked with musicians such as Merle Travis and Tennessee Ernie Ford. The station then gave him a regular half-hour Saturday night program billed as the Singing Fisherman, during which he sang and displayed his casting skills with a fishing rod. Around this time he also hosted the radio program Hacienda Party Time for KLAC-TV in Los Angeles.

A mixture of Horton's television performances and Robison's acquaintances earned him a couple of singles with the minor Cormac recording company. The first single coupled "Plaid And Calico" with "Done Rovin'" and the second "Coal Smoke, Valve Oil and Steam" with "Birds and Butterflies". The company then terminated and Robinson acquired the masters and started his own company named Abbott Records. By mid 1952, ten Horton singles had been issued but none were very successful. They were, for the most part, ordinary Western-style songs.

After marriage to Donna and a honeymoon in Palm Springs, he relocated back east to be near the Louisiana Hayride where he was then scheduled to appear on a regular basis. Robison persuaded Mercury Records A&R man Walter Kilpatrick to hire Horton, who began with his songs "First Train Headin' South" b/w "(I Wished for an Angel) The Devil Sent Me You" (Mercury 6412), with good reviews by the trade newspapers.

Horton was married twice. His first marriage, to Donna Cook, ended with a divorce granted in Rusk. During September 1953, he married Billie Jean Jones. Jones was the widow of country music singer Hank Williams, to whom she had been married for the two and one-half months prior to his death. With Billie Jean, Horton had two daughters, Yanina (Nina) and Melody. Billie Jean's daughter, Jeri Lynn was also legally adopted by Johnny and was also part of the family.