Sue Lummus | Don Lummus
BIRTHDAY: April 13th, 1943
BORN IN: Rusk County, Texas
ANNIVERSARY: (Coincidentally, the same as Sue's)
MARRIED TO: (See Sue's Bio)
FATHER OF: (this is too easy)...
PAWPAW OF: (once again...Same as Sue)
HOBBIES: Fishing, computers, writing, pickin' lint, scratchin', (oh.. sorry.. drifted off there), Photography (also a profession).
MUSICAL INFLUENCES: Chet Atkins, Les Paul, Merle Travis, Leon Rhodes, Luther Perkins, Waylon (guitar).. My Daddy, Momma, My Grand-Daddy Lummus, Uncle Floyd, Uncle Roy.. and Hank, George, Ray, Lefty, Mel, E.T., Merle, David Houston, pretty much every Real Country Legend ever.
ACCOLADES: Appeared on Louisiana Hayride, 1984, and Ernest Tubb's Midnight Jamboree, 1986, Single Record, "It Makes No Difference Now" charted CashBox Magazine's Top 100, Sept. 1987.
Inducted (along with Sue) Lone Star State CMA Hall of Fame, 2001.
Don's Story
"I was born a pore Country boy"... (Ain't that how most Country Singers start?) about 3 miles out of Henderson, Texas, on the "Laneville Highway" (FM 225). Delivered at home, I came in at a whoppin' 10lbs, 13oz. (In later years I apologized to my Momma for that!) My older brother, Joe, didn't take to kindly to the "new kid" at first, and was caught shortly after I was born trying to sneak me out of the house and across the road to Murdock's Store where he had been offered a Grapette soda water (that's "pop" for all our non-Texan friends) in "trade" for me. Luckily, he changed his attitude towards me in later years and we got along great after that.
Kinda like Sue, I also had a fairly large influence of music and "socializin'" growing up. Our Mom and Dad were both musically blessed.. I think Daddy always wanted to be a Country Singer like his heros, Jimmy Rodgers, and Ernest Tubb, but he spent his life taking on whatever jobs that fit his skill levels.. (hated farming and oilfield work), to provide for his family. We moved around a lot when us kids were young due to Daddy's restless streak. After the daily chores were done, Momma sang us old cowboy and country songs and played the "french harp" when Dad was working. I had 2 uncles who I thought were the best guitar pickers in the world..and Momma told me I used to sit around and make up songs for her and play my "rubber-band-string" cigar box guitar. My first "paid" gig came early on. When I was about 4 or 5, my brother, me and Joe, sang "LoveSick Blues" for a gathering of neighbors and friends at Jimmerson's Grocery Store across the Marshall Highway from where we lived at that time. We got "paid" 25 cents and a Grapette soda water apiece. (seems like a pattern there with Grapettes).
When I was 15, I got my first "real" guitar thanks to my brother Joe's impatience with a brand new "Stella" "tiger-stripe" Flat-Top that he bought with his first Christmas Bonus. While he was deciding if he had time to mess with it (girls took top priority at that point in his life), I had already figured out "C", "G", and "F" chords.. so he told me I could have it. Mom and Dad took us to the local honky-tonks when we were kids, and I did my first "set-in" at the age of 14. Of course, I was hooked.. began immediately planning how I was gonna spend all the money I was gonna make pickin' guitar! Right!
Anyway.. after serving in the Army, where I also played music more than I did military stuff, I came back to Houston (did I mention that Daddy moved us to Houston when I was just 6 years old?), and almost immediately began pickin' and singin'. This was late 1964, and I began a long run of pickin' and singin' while holding down "day jobs" to support my music habit.
While playing a long sit down gig at the world-famous Esquire Ballroom, 11410 Hempstead Highway, in 1969, that Fate thing I mentioned in Sue's Story came about.. and things have been pretty great for the most part since then.
So there... that should be more than enough about me to keep people entertained or bored as one see's fit.
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Jimmerson's Grocery Store
Sue Lummus | Don Lummus