Smiley Burnette

Based on his record sales, Smiley Burnette wasn't more than a footnote in the annals of recorded country music. However, thanks to his appearances as a sidekick to Gene Autry in dozens of Republic Pictures Westerns before World War II, and with Charles Starrett and Roy Rogers later on, he was one of the most familiar country & western performers in movies, and a beloved performer on stage and radio. Burnette began his performing career at age nine, playing the musical saw. He organized and led his own band in high school in the late '20s, and after graduation he set out on a...