Mack Vickery

Mack Vickery never let adversity stand in the way of his ambition. Left motherless at an early age, he lived an itinerant life with his father for a decade, from the early 1940s through the early '50s. He developed a love of country music in the course of growing up, and while still in his mid-teens started his own honky tonk band. Successfully deceiving people about his age, Vickery eked out a living playing music in Michigan and Ohio. His major influence, apart from Hank Williams, was Ernest Tubb, whose 1948 hit "Have You Ever Been Lonely" became part of Vickery's repertory....