Jimmy Long

Jimmy Long was a railroad man with a knack for singing and playing the guitar who emerged on radio and then on records in the 1920s and early '30s. If that background sounds a little like the early biography of Gene Autry, it's no accident -- Long worked the railroads at the same time that Autry did, and the two ended up becoming performing and recording partners; Long also co-wrote the song that became Autry's signature tune, "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine"; and Autry married Long's niece Ina in 1930. Long was an employee of the St. Louis & Frisco Railroad at the time Autr...