Rex Allen
1989 WMA Hall of Fame Member

Rex Elvie Allen was born on Dec 31, 1920 in Willcox, AZ. He died of a heart attack on Dec.17, 1999, in Tucson, AZ.. He spent his early years on a small ranch in Arizona, about 40 miles from town. His family knew tragedy; his older brother died from a rattlesnake bite and his younger sister died from a childhood illness. After the deaths of these two children, the family moved into Willcox, then to a ranch four miles outside of town. Shortly thereafter, Rex's mother, Faye Clark Allen, died from blood poisoning.

Rex's father, Horace, managed to hold the family together and he later married Myrtle Crawford; they had two daughters, Billie and Flora. Horace was an old-time fiddler who bought Rex a guitar from Sears and Roebuck so his son could provide accompaniment at local dances. Rex sang the songs he'd heard on recordings of Jimmie Rodgers, Gene Autry, Carson Robison and the early Carter Family. Sometimes he earned up to $1.55 in tips playing at the Railroad Avenue barber shop in Willcox on Saturdays. Today, Railroad Ave. is the site of the Rex Allen Museum.    

Around 1934, Horace ran into financial problems with the cattle business, so he entered the plastering trade. Rex went with him to Phoenix and played on a radio show on KOY. In 1939 Rex became a regular performer on WTTM in Trenton, New Jersey, then moved to WCAU in Philadelphia where he performed as a fiddler and harmony singer with the Sleepy Hollow Gang. From there, Rex went to the National Barn Dance at WLS in Chicago  where he stayed for four and a half years; it was there he met Bonnie Linder, whom he married in 1946. That same year he signed a recording contract with Mercury.

On August 23, 1947, his first son, Rex Allen, Jr. was born. During these years, he recorded a series of western music transcriptions, backed by the WLS studio band, the Prairie Ramblers. Many of these excellent recordings are now available on CD.In 1949 Rex signed with Republic Pictures, which had produced the singing cowboy movies of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. At Republic, his first starring picture was The Arizona Cowboy, and, to introduce it, he wrote the picture's theme, "Too Lee Roll Um (I'm an Arizona Cowboy)." Autry had left Republic in 1947, and Roy Rogers left in 1951. Monte Hale's last B-Western had been filmed just before Rex arrived in Hollywood. That meant that Rex Allen was the last remaining singing cowboy with the studio that had pioneered that genre. The last of his 19 movies, Phantom Stallion, was released in 1954, and it turned out to be the last of the singing cowboy movies. Later, in 1958, Rex filmed a popular Western television series called "Frontier Doctor," at the old Republic studio. It was a half-hour program and was a concept Rex himself conceived, so it was set in old Arizona.  Between 1951 and 1959 Rex was also the star of a series of comic books published by Dell. Rex's horse was named "Koko" and he had several sidekicks--the most notable were Buddy Ebsen and Slim Pickens.

Mary Ellen Kay was his leading lady in six features. In 1952 Rex left Mercury and joined Decca where he had a big hit with "Crying in the Chapel" the following year. He also kept busy with a touring and rodeo appearance schedule. During his time with Decca, he recorded one of Western music's most enduring albums, Under Western Skies. It is said that, after he finished singing "Streets of Laredo" on that session, Victor Young's orchestra gave him a standing ovation. It  was a rendition that illustrated his remarkable range, and it became his signature song. In 1961 Allen returned to Mercury where he had a major hit with "Don't Go Near the Indians" the following year. During the 1960s Rex narrated a number of Walt Disney's nature films, e.g. The Legend of Lobo (1962) and The Incredible Journey (1963) and Disney TV programs, and he recorded for Disney's Buena Vista label. In 1972 he returned to his Western roots, recording an outstanding LP of Western songs that has been issued on 3 different labels, the latest being GME (title: The Arizona Cowboy).  

From 1976 until 1994 he toured with the Reinsmen. Shortly before his death in 1999, he recorded another outstanding Western album, A Pair to Draw To, this time with friends Don Edwards and the Reinsmen.Rex Allen is honored annually with "Rex Allen Days," held in Willcox, Arizona, and with the Rex Allen Museum, also in Willcox. He was elected to the WMA Hall of Fame in 1989.