Buddy Ray R.I.P.

[Jason Odd]

Robert James "Buddy" Ray

Robert James "Buddy" Ray, 83, a legendary jazz violinist and pioneer
of Western swing music who had lived in Waskom for the past five
years, died Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2003, after a long illness.
Memorial service: 2 p.m. Saturday at the First Lutheran Church of
Shreveport, La. There will be a reception following the service.

Buddy Ray was born Nov. 30, 1919, in Waco. He enjoyed a professional
music career that spanned 60 years, during which he played with such
names as Bob Wills, Ray Price, Nat King Cole, Sammi Smith, Jimmy
Wakely and countless others. During a 25-year stint on the West Coast
beginning in 1944, he also appeared, usually as a musician, in a
number of films, including the Benny Goodman Story, Giant, A Star is
Born, Brigadoon and Jailhouse Rock with Elvis Presley.

Buddy was reared in Waco, where he began his career with his mother,
Lucille Ray's Moonglow Orchestra in the mid 1930s. A formally trained
violinist, he began to gravitate toward jazz and country music about
1937, when he joined the early Houston-based string swing band, the
Modern Mountaineers, with whom he traveled to Shreveport, La., in the
summer of '37. While with the group, he made the first of hundreds of
recordings. By 1940, Buddy was one of the top young fiddlers in
Texas, appearing with pioneering Western swing groups like the Texas
Wanderers and the Village Boys.

Buddy was an early proponent of the electric violin and was among the
first to record with the instrument. In addition to his fiddling, he
made numerous recordings as a vocalist during this period and
composed a number of songs, the most famous probably being the
modernistic swing instrumental Tulsa Twist, which was recorded by
Dickie McBride and His Village Boys for Decca Records in 1941. It has
since been reissed on a number of occasions. His ballad "I Don't Want
Anyone But You" was also recorded several times by other artists.

In late 1943, Buddy relocated to California, where he worked with
most of the top western bands of the day, such names as Bob Wills and
His Texas Playboys, T. Texas Tyler and his Oklahoma Melody Boys, Merl
Lindsay's Oklahoma Night Riders, Jimmy Wakely, Merle Travis and many
others. He continued to record and during this period also began the
move career detailed above. As rock'n'roll and television altered
tastes and entertainment patterns, Ray took up tenor saxophone as a
second instrument. In the 1950s, he began a close friendship with the
famed black jazz violinist Stuff Smith, who had been Ray's main
inspiration in his early professional career.

In 1970, he returned to Texas, though he spent several years on the
road with Ray Price and Sammi Smith before settling in Fort Worth. He
remained in the Fort Worth area for the next quarter-century, playing
with local groups. In 1994, he joined Fort Worth's jazz-blues group,
The Braton and Price Swingmasters Revue, with whom he made his final
recordings, issued recently on Fort Worth's Aristokraft label. He
remained with the group until his retirement to Waskom in 1998.

Buddy married his wife, Peggy, in 1975. A writer and philosopher in
addition to his musical career, Buddy was a devout Christian and a
member of First Lutheran Church in Shreveport, La.

Survivors: Wife of 27 years, Peggy; daughter, Kim Johnson of Waskom;
beloved grandson, Eric Johnson of Waskom; brother, Billy Ray of West;
and sister, Carol Leidig of Waco.
Published in the Star-Telegram on 9/5/2003.